Shaking off the
sleet from my ice-glazed hat and jacket, I seated myself near the door, and turning sideways was surprised to see Queequeg near me.
The fitful bursts of
sleet had changed into a steady rain and the horses had heavy work even without a load behind them.
"I saw a light moving about the house, and being nearly blinded by the
sleet, and half frozen besides, drove in at the gate and put up my horse in the old rail stable, where it is now.
The climate is certainly wretched: the summer solstice was now passed, yet every day snow fell on the hills, and in the valleys there was rain, accompanied by
sleet. The thermometer generally stood about 45 degs., but in the night fell to 38 or 40 degs.
A bitter
sleet came rattling against us here on the east wind, and Joe took me on his back.
Sometimes the crags and promontories forced them upon the narrow riband of ice that bordered the shore; sometimes they had to scramble over vast masses of rock which had tumbled from the impending precipices; sometimes they had to cross the stream upon the hazardous bridges of ice and snow, sinking to the knee at every step; sometimes they had to scale slippery acclivities, and to pass along narrow cornices, glazed with ice and
sleet, a shouldering wall of rock on one side, a yawning precipice on the other, where a single false step would have been fatal.
The weather for a few days past had been stormy, with rain and
sleet. The Rocky Mountains are subject to tempestuous winds from the west; these sometimes come in flaws or currents, making a path through the forests many yards in width, and whirling off trunks and branches to a great distance.
Now is dry, now is wet, Now is snow, now is
sleet, When my shoon freeze to my feet,
Came days of fog, when even Maud's spirit drooped and there were no merry words upon her lips; days of calm, when we floated on the lonely immensity of sea, oppressed by its greatness and yet marvelling at the miracle of tiny life, for we still lived and struggled to live; days of
sleet and wind and snow-squalls, when nothing could keep us warm; or days of drizzling rain, when we filled our water-breakers from the drip of the wet sail.
The
sleet fell all that day unceasingly, a thick mist came on early, and it never rose or lightened for a moment.
