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prognosticated on our departure from thence, that
the little taunt-masted yacht would never reach
Iceland, or would leave her remains on some part
of its rocky shores, which might, indeed, from our
entire ignorance of them, have happened. Fate
however ordained it otherwise.
We had now got under a projecting coast still
exhibiting black and naked rocks of strange, fantastic
shapes, and being on our right, we were
eA'idently standing into a fiord, of the further extremity
of which we soon got sight, where there was
every appearance of a harbour. As we approached
a little nearer, we were able to discover, with the
aid of a telescope, the masts of a vessel, and two
or three houses. The sight of these was a great
relief to our anxiety, but having once touched the
ground, we were now extremely cautious in venturing
too far into the passage, and therefore laid
to, whilst Mr. Smith, accompanied by Mr.
Knudtzon, proceeded in the cutter to endeavour to
bring off a pilot, and to discover whether this was
Reikiavik, and if not, where we should find it.
I t was blowing strong in the fiord, and there
was a high sea running, notwithstanding our
being very close under the land. We soon lost
sight of our companions, who, before they had
proceeded far, fell in with a pilot-boat that was
coming off to the yacht. They managed, but
not without considerable danger of swamping
the cutter, to get the pilot out of his boat, and
brought him on board. It was so foggy, that
we could see nothing of them until they came
close alongside again. They Avere completely
drenched with the waves, and had been obliged to
keep constantly baling out the boat for upAvards of
an hour, being the whole time they Avere absent,
to prevent her from filling. As may be supposed,
we who remained onboard were not a little rejoiced
at their safe return. The pilot was also drenched
to the skin, and was shivering with the cold : he
was soon, however, made comfortable on board
the yacht by a change of apparel.
We noAV learnt that the place Ave had run into
was Havnefiord, which was considerably to the
southAvard of Reikiavik, and separated from it by
two projecting points of land, and a small intermediate
bay— so that we had, in fact, again passed
our port. The pilot, hoAvever, soon brought us into
our destined harbour, Avheii the mystery was at
once explained why Ave had tAvice passed it. A
projecting neck of land, in the northern or northeastern
side of which the town is situated, entirely
excludes the navigator from the possibility of
seeing anything like a town or harbour in passing
along the coast.
The Danish chart, though a correct one, is on
too small a scale to navigate by—in fact, it is little
more than a kind of index to a large survey made
of the coast by order of the Danish government,
of which Ave had only the reduced general outline.
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