170 Intelligence and Miscellanies. 
thrown by each flash into strong outline, struggling hard to 
secure the canvass and to maintain their precarious footing: 
the ship rolled oneetonses And now add the wild uproar 
of elements, the “ noise of many waters,” the deep and con- 
stant roar of win es the cries of men aloft, the heavy and 
rapid tread of those below, the reiterated orders of officers, 
and the sounds of the trumpet rising above all; and then 
add to this the heavy rolling of thunder, at times drowning 
all these sounds. The first lieutenant had the deck ; he had 
sprung to it at the first alarm, and seizing the trumpet had 
called for Black, his favorite helmsman. e ship was 
soon under snug sail, and now dashed onwards at a furious 
rate, giving to the gale a yet wilder character. All at once 
when saddenly came a loud shout from the forecastle, “a sail 
on the starboard bow,” and then another, “a sail close on 
the larboard bow.” I trembled then; not for ourselves, tor 
.we should have gone over them and have scarcely felt the 
shock, but ~ — poor wretches, whom it would have been 
impossible to The helm was put hard down; we shot 
by, and [ coms breathed freely, when some one ‘bade me 
look up to our spars, I did so, and found every upper yard 
arm and mast head tipped with lightning. Each blaze was 
twice as large as that of a candle, and thus we flew on with 
the elements of destruction playing above our heads. 
In about thirty minutes the wind, which was from the 
S. W. changed suddenly to the S. E. and became as hot as 
air from the mouth of an oven: it was the sirocco, and, I 
was told afterwards by those most above the deck, brought 
with it a quantity of fine sand. We were then a few miles 
from Maratimo, sixty six from Cape Bon, the nearest African 
shore, and three hundred from the nearest land in the direc- 
tion of the wind. It lasted half an hour, and was a stiff, 
smacking breeze, but not near so strong as the one that had 
preceded it. 
Asimilar electric phenomenon occurred to the ship in which 
Castor and Pollux sailed, in the Argonautic expedition, only 
the light appeared on the caps of the two heroes: the storm 
subsided and they were received as patrons of — Hence 
the ancient medals represent them each with a star or flame 
of fire at the apex of his cap. In this way os we may ac- 
count for the story, that they often appeared to sailors in dis- 
