With Both Hands Occupied In
Levelling The Telescope, I Could Not Keep The Wind From
Blowing The Loose Wrap Quite Off My Shoulders, And Except
For The Name Of The Thing, I Might Just As Well Have Been
Standing In My Shirt.
Indeed, I was so irresistibly struck
with my own resemblance to a coloured print I remember
in youthful days,
- Representing that celebrated character
"Puss in Boots," with a purple robe of honour streaming
far behind him on the wind, to express the velocity of
his magical progress - that I laughed aloud while I shivered
in the blast. What with the spray and mist, moreover, it
was a good ten minutes before I could make out the writing,
and when at last I did spell out the letters, their
meaning was not very inspiriting: "Nous retournons a
Reykjavik!" So evidently they had given it up as a bad
job, and had come to the conclusion that the island was
inaccessible. Yet it seemed very hard to have to turn
back, after coming so far! We had already made upwards
of three hundred miles since leaving Iceland: it could
not be much above one hundred and twenty or one hundred
and thirty more to Jan Mayen; and although things looked
unpromising, there still seemed such a chance of success,
that I could not find it in my heart to give in; so,
having run up a jack at the fore - all writing on our
board was out of the question, we were so deluged with
spray - I jumped down to wake Fitzgerald and Sigurdr, and
tell them we were going to cast off, in case they had
any letters to send home.
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