Three days, and as many nights, did the gale from the south-west continue.  The fourth day there was a change, the wind coming from the eastward.  Roswell would now have gone out, had it not been for the apprehension of falling in with Daggett again.  Having at length gotten rid of that pertinacious companion, it would have been an act of great weakness to throw himself blindly in his way once more.  It was possible that Daggett might not suppose he had been left intentionally, in which case, he would be very apt to look for his lost consort in the vicinity of the cape.  As for the gale, it might, or it might not, have blown him to leeward.  A good deal would depend on the currents, and his distance to the southward.  Near the land, Gardiner believed the currents favoured a vessel doubling it, going west; and if Daggett was also aware of this fact, it might induce him to keep as near the spot as possible.

Time was very precious to our sealers, the season being so short in the high latitudes.  Still, they were a little in advance of their calculations, having got off the Horn fully ten days sooner than they had hoped to be there.  Nearly the whole summer was before them, and there was the possibility of their even being too soon for the loosening of the ice further south.  The wind was the strongest inducement to go out, for the point to which our adventurers were bound lay a considerable distance to the westward, and fair breezes were not to be neglected.  Under all the circumstances, however, it was decided to remain within the passage one day longer, and this so much the more, because Hazard had discovered some signs of sea-elephants frequenting an island at no great distance.  The boats were lowered accordingly, and the mate went in one direction, while the master pulled up to the rocks, and landed on the Hermit, or the island which should bear that name, par excellence, being that in which the group terminates.

Taking Stimson with him, to carry a glass, and armed with an old lance as a pike-pole, to aid his efforts, Roswell Gardiner now commenced the ascent of the pyramid already mentioned.  It was ragged, and offered a thousand obstacles, but none that vigour and resolution could not overcome After a few minutes of violent exertion, and by helping each other in difficult places, both Roswell and Stimson succeeded in placing themselves on the summit of the elevation, which was an irregular peak.  The height was considerable, and gave an extended view of the adjacent islands, as well as of the gloomy and menacing ocean to the southward.  The earth, probably, does not contain a more remarkable sentinel than this pyramid on which our hero had now taken his station.  There it stood, actually the Ultima Thule of this vast continent, or, what was much the same, so closely united to it as to seem a part of our own moiety of the globe, looking out on the broad expanse of waters.  The eye saw, to the right, the Pacific; in front was the Southern,