The British Associations visit to Montreal, 1884: Letters | Page 4

train on Saturday
16th, and a card to Clara after we arrived on board. This is a capital
ship, and lucky for us it is so, for we have had a regular gale. I little
thought it was possible that I should dislike any sea as I do this Atlantic!
It has been dreadful weather--grey in the clouds above and waters
beneath, and blowing hard, without anything to brighten the vast waste
of waters, and I have heartily wished myself away from it. This truly
humiliating state of things will cause you to triumph over me, no doubt!
I became uncomfortable and headachy and could do nothing, nor bear
to stay in the saloon, and the drawing room, such as it is, is taken
possession of by the men, who lay themselves down full length on the
seats and leave no room for any ladies, so I have stayed in my cabin. Dr.

Protheroe Smith has been quite a comfort to me. He is such a good man,
and so pleasant, and has given me things to read, and relates interesting
medical and religious experiences. While I write, an enormous wave
has dashed against my port light and given me a flash of darkness.
Hedley has been rather ill, but has never quite lost his appetite. Gibson
and the two others have held out well. Evelyn has been in her berth
since Monday, when it began to blow, but she has not been really ill.
John and Dick have braved the storm on deck, and say the sight of the
waves from the stern was magnificent, but I don't care for this kind of
awful uncomfortable magnificence, which makes me feel a miserable
shrimp, whose fate it is to be swallowed up by these raging waves, and
who well deserves it. So I only made a feeble attempt to get to the deck
on Monday, and was glad, to leave it in half an hour when it rained. I
went down to the drawing room to look at some men playing chess, but
as the others stared at me as if I had no right to be there, and the motion
was very bad, I had soon to leave ignominiously. Mr. Barrett has
entertained me with some ghost stories, well authenticated and printed
for private circulation. I have begun writing this to-day because there
seems some chance of posting it on Saturday or Sunday, when Sir
Leonard and Lady Tilley and two sons are to be landed at New
Brunswick as we pass down the Straits of Belle Isle, I think. I shall not
see your birth-place as we shall be too far off.
_Friday, 22nd._--I went upon deck after breakfast in a great hurry to
see an iceberg. I was greeted with great kindness by every one after my
three days' seclusion, and thoroughly enjoyed the day and the ocean for
the first time. It was very cold but clear and sparkling, and there was no
motion to speak of; after the gale, and the great hills and valleys of the
Atlantic roll in a storm, it seemed impossible it could be so smooth; but
we are to have every experience of weather, as a fog came on and we
steamed very slowly and blew fog signals for an hour! However, the
sun broke forth and lifted the curtain of fog, and within a quarter of a
mile we saw a beautiful iceberg twelve or fifteen hundred feet deep,
they said, and so beautiful in its ultra marine colouring. The shape was
like a village church somewhat in ruins. Miss Fox, a sister of Caroline
Fox, is on board and sketched the icebergs and the waves during the
storm very cleverly. They were also photographed by Mr. Barrett and a
professional. After dinner we were all on deck again and watched for

the lights on the coast of Labrador, which mark the entrance into the
Straits of Belle Isle, and at last a twinkle caught my eye and we all
greeted it with joy! Isn't it wonderful that a ship can be steered across
that vast expanse of water straight to this light, in spite of clouds and
storms and without the sight of sun or moon or stars? If I was teaching
a class I should quote this as a good illustration of "God's mysterious
ways." We wander on through all the changes, and chances of this
mortal life, and we don't know the why, or when, or where, but at last
we see the lights of heaven looming on our horizon and are at the haven
where we would be. Then we realize that all the time He was guiding
us by ways that we knew not! In the evening we heard an auction
amusingly carried on, though I