A thick haze
overspread the lower parts of the landscape, throwing the bloated masses
of clouds higher up in the horizon, into a sort of sombre relief. As I
passed a little look-out house on my way to the beach, I sauntered to a
group of sailors at their usual council, who were gazing with deep
interest at a solitary vessel dimly discernible through the fog in the
offing. As she neared us we found her to be a barque of apparently
considerable burthen, making a tack to weather the Torhead, which lay
several miles under her lee, with a strong breeze from windward. She was
evidently quite out of her reckoning from the indecision and embarassment
displayed in her movements; and the captain seemed not sufficiently aware
of the hazard he ran. I waited sometime at this place watching the
movements of the ship. The tide came roaring in with a broken swell
increased by a high spring flood; and there was that in the "wind's eye"
which betokened approaching disaster; while the gloom was increasing, and
the harsh cries and hurried flight of the sea-birds indicated tempestuous
weather.
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