I did not see any more of the light.

By the lead, which I cast often, I found that a little after midnight I was passing the east point of the island, and should soon be clear of dangers of land and shoals.

The wind was holding free, though it was from the foggy point, south-southwest.

It is said that within a few years Sable Island has been reduced from forty miles in length to twenty, and that of three lighthouses built on it since 1880, two have been washed away and the third will soon be engulfed.
[Illustration: "'Good evening, sir.'"] On the evening of July 5 the _Spray_, after having steered all day over a lumpy sea, took it into her head to go without the helmsman's aid.

I had been steering southeast by south, but the wind hauling forward a bit, she dropped into a smooth lane, heading southeast, and making about eight knots, her very best work.