The evening was pleasant, and as we gradually rolled past the land, I had a calm pleasure in looking at it. The northern extremity of the island is an attenuated bluff, low in comparison with the ice-covered mountains behind it, seemingly sterile, and with but few signs of habitations. A small rocky island forms an advanced work. Against this, and against the bluff itself, the sea was beating in sullen surge; and we were near enough to see its spray, and to note the marine birds hovering over their nests. The sun set while I was lost in the contemplation of this scene, and of the rocky and indented coasts beyond. The master of the brig was a respectable man, and he endeavoured to compensate for his want of energy by entertaining me with the marvellous riches of the “nobility and gentry,”--a subject of which Englishmen of his class seldom weary.--He commenced with an account of the value of the plate of the Duke of Northumberland, who had just been appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and who had paid a premium of 90,000_l._ to get it insured between London and Dublin. As the rate was a half per cent. this made the plate itself worth 1,800,000_l._ But Englishmen of this class do not often stick at trifles on such a subject,--and yet they coolly accuse us of exaggerating! Another of the tales of my shipmate was an account of a Mr. W---- P----, who had got 500,000_l._ a year by his wife, and who was in the habit of losing whole streets in London on a game of cards. And yet this man, with all his imagination about guineas, never bethought him of the necessity of a ship’s having boom-irons to make a passage, which is making money. We can talk more “dollar” than the English in a given time, I believe; but we have no parallel to their cool accumulations of tens of thousands a year in the way of incomes.