94 A MOUNTAIN WAVE.

 

‘oHE SEA WENT SO HIGH THAT THE BOAT COULD NOT LIVE.”

What the shore was—whether rock or sand, whether steep or
shoal—we knew not; the only hope that could rationally give us
the least shadow of expectation, was if we might happen into some
bay or gulf, or the mouth of some river, where by great chance we
might have run our boat in, or got under the lee of the land, and
perhaps made smooth water. But there was nothing of this
appeared; but as we made nearer and nearer the shore, the land
looked more frightful than the sea.

After we had rowed or rather driven about a league and a half,
as we reckoned it, a raging wave, mountain-like, came rolling
astern of us, and plainly bade us expect the cowp-de-grace. In a