The outline of the first
was that of a rude, and of course an irregular triangle, the three
principal points of which were the two low capes already mentioned, and a
third that lay to the northward and westward. The whole of the western or
south-western shore seemed to be a nearly perpendicular wall of rock,
that, in the main, rose some two or three hundred feet above the ocean.
Against this side of the island in particular, the waves of the ocean were
sullenly beating, while the ice drove up 'home,' as sailors express it;
showing a vast depth of water. On the two other sides, it was different.
The winds prevailed most from the south-west, which rendered the
perpendicular face of the island its weather-wall; while the two other
sides of the triangle were more favoured by position. The north side, of
course, lay most exposed to the sun, everything of this nature being
reversed in the southern hemisphere from what we have it in the northern;
while the eastern or north-eastern side, to be precisely accurate, was
protected by the group of islands that lay in its front. Such was the
general character of Sealer's Land, so far as the hurried observations of
its present master enabled him to ascertain.
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