The broker seemed to have got hold of the very churches; for their spires rose into the sky with an unwonted air.

Even the sky itself was changed, and had an execution in it plainly.
Captain Cuttle lived on the brink of a little canal near the India Docks, where there was a swivel bridge which opened now and then to let some wandering monster of a ship come roaming up the street like a stranded leviathan.

The gradual change from land to water, on the approach to Captain Cuttle's lodgings, was curious.

It began with the erection of flagstaffs, as appurtenances to public-houses; then came slop-sellers' shops, with Guernsey shirts, sou'wester hats, and canvas pantaloons, at once the tightest and the loosest of their order, hanging up outside.

These were succeeded by anchor and chain-cable forges, where sledgehammers were dinging upon iron all day long.