VOYAGE OUTWARD. ti'J 



seated in his canoe, almost, compels the imagination to look 

 upon the man and his boat as partaking of a common exist- 

 ence, restoring to some degree of reality the fable of the 

 Centaur; particularly when these poor people are seen flying 

 along, each in his flimsy bark, with a short paddle alter- 



supposed a cirrus. The reader is requested to bear this in mind, as 

 it will be necessary to refer to this phenomenon hereafter. 



March 30: ther. 35°, 36°, 35°: wind N.W., fresh breeze, in- 

 creasing to a gale: cumulostratus, successively advancing with the 

 wind, becoming nimbus in its angry progress, and regularly dis- 

 charging hail with intensity of cold. In this immense basin (the 

 Atlantic,) the effects of wind this day have been commensurate to 

 the grandest elevation of wave. The firmness of the vessel giving 

 all the security of land observation, I looked on this terrible scene 

 with awful delight. At 9^- p. m. tlie coruscations appeared again 

 froniN.W. ; and in the midst of the stunning hurly, I could not 

 resist noticing their activity. Imagination would say, that truly the 

 spirit of the storm was abroad in all his majesty. The account of 

 the lights, immediately noted, may be of interest to some of my 

 readers. 



Assuming, as before, an archwise coruscation, but instead of the 

 iUucescent radii playing from a horizontal base as formerly observed, 

 the basial line of these coruscations assumed an angle from the horizon 

 of about fifty degrees. Tongues of brassy hue, at considerable 

 intervals of space, and bending to S.W., touched their ethereal base 

 with lambent playfulness, then, twining in spiral convolution, shot 



F 



