i62 I N A G U A 



usually sensitive to and keenly aware of the forces encom- 

 passing me on all sides. The moon was still high in the heavens 

 and was flooding the world with cold blue light. The Pleiades 

 flared in a scattered mass low on the horizon; the planet Jupiter 

 stared unwinkingly out of the dark background of infinite 

 space; in the north the pole star glittered faintly, half hidden 

 in the sea haze; around it revolved the tremendous galaxy of a 

 million solar systems. The great somber ocean stretched darkly 

 away into the night, suggested rather than revealed by the soft 

 loom of the moonlight on its surface; it gave the sensation of 

 a great sleeping monster whose rhythmic breathing was audible 

 as low deep thunder. The waves rumbling against the island's 

 barrier were not visible but they filled the air with guttural 

 sobbing, a subdued moaning that began heavily and then faded 

 into an audible sigh. The earth seemed divided between two 

 great and tremendous powers, one which was firm and stable, 

 the other surging and fluid. Swelling behind these forces was 

 the sound of another, and seemingly all-pervading, energy. 



This third force seemed to come out of the emptiness of 

 outer space; the wail of its pressure dominated the whole of 

 existence. It did not rise and fall in rhythmical sequence like the 

 surf but maintained a constant tenor, a deep organ-like lamenta- 

 tion that swept on and on in constant reiteration, never ceasing. 

 The sound was the howl of the trade winds as they poured 

 over the earth in a continuous stream. I had never noticed it 

 quite like that before. The entire firmament seemed alive and 

 on the move; the slight pocket of still air behind the mound of 

 boulders where I lay accentuated, by contrast, the sense of 

 power flowing by on all sides. The earth was being washed by 

 a vast river of rushing gas— intangible, invisible but nonetheless 

 potent. 



By listening intently I could separate the hundred com- 

 ponents that combined to make up the majestic sound. There 



