134 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



next fire in this solitary place. The evening was so 

 clear that no one anticipated a change of weather, and 

 everybody being tired we all retired early and were 

 sound asleep, when towards midnight we were wak- 

 ened by the most brilliant and incessant lightning; 

 the whole sky seemed quivering with it. Presently 

 came pouring rain and then a storm of hail that 

 sounded like a discharge of musketry on the deck. 

 We all came running out of our rooms in the most 

 singular costumes to see what was the matter. Waked 

 so suddenly from sleep one thought the powder mag- 

 azine was exploding, another, that the vessel was on 

 fire and the sharp clattering was the crackling of 

 wood. I had started with the first rain and fortu- 

 nately closed all the ports and skylight in our room, 

 or we should have been well pelted. I wondered how 

 the men on deck could stand it. They brought us 

 down many of the stones, but they melted so fast 

 that those I saw were not larger than good-sized 

 marbles or hazel nuts; but they said in falling many 

 were as large as hen's eggs or walnuts. I remember 

 Darwin in his narrative speaks of the hailstones here 

 as very large and says the "guanacos" are sometimes 

 killed by them. I can easily imagine it; an animal 

 would stand a bad chance in these wide shelterless 

 plains under such a fire of ice shot as we had last 

 night. The rest of the night was quiet as possible, and 

 this morning we have fine weather again. 



Our next stopping place so far as we know at pres- 

 ent is to be the Santa Cruz River shortly before en- 

 tering the Straits. 



