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Friday May 13. 1859
I was too fast yesterday in registering my introduction to
the Ice berg family - In the course of the day two
other crystal islands were seen floating away far
to the leeward. either of them ample for castle of the
and domain of the Ice King.
Years have abated my faculty of wonder
the lakes great lakes with whom fiercest features
as well as their calmest moods I have become
familiar. The navigation of the stormy St. Lawrence
wisely remembered. The common place of steam
All these have so moderated my veneration
for the ocean. that in truth I could not reinvent
it with the terror or the grandeur it saw in
my earlier days – During the five first days our
voyage seemed to me tan flat and unprofit-
able – This morning however I awoke to recognize
the sea in its ancient magnificence – The fogs of
New Foundland were rolling up into clouds before
the sweep of a bleak NorthWestern which stirred
up the waves into reefs of darting foam. A
lovely sea gull was sweeping under a
Far away in the distance on either side ships wake
carefully reefed canvass were seen like struggling
in the coves, creatures half of the waters and
half lost in the clouds – I apprehended a gale

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and walked to the Captains office for reafirmance – I
found it. Since the mercury had sank to zero, but
the barometer truthful and constant showed the
needle fixed at the cheery point "Set fare" –
I went on the Hurricane deck and tread trod the
sheet tin roof until the gong reminded all the
^important^ passengers myself among them to breakfast.
At noon to day we enter in the 7th day of our
voyage – not yet quite half way across the
Atlantic. My watch still runs on New York time
but the ship has gained more than two hours, and
thus I know that we apprehend the middle of
the appointed course.