60 DEEP-SEA SOUNDING. 



deck and was shockingly injured. The sounds and 

 scenes through all the hours of the day and night were 

 of the most awful description that can be imagined ; the 

 shrieking winds, the spuming and churning waters, the 

 murky and impenetrable veil overhead and on every 

 side, and the tons of ashes, pumice-stone, and earthy 

 fragments that threatened to engulf the fated bark* 

 combining to daze and appal every soul on board. 

 From the poor little Chinaman who has linked his lot 

 with this vessel for six years, to the hapless native of 

 the Philippines, the hardy Scandinavian who had 

 weathered many a gale, the cheery and courteous mate, 

 and even to the master of the ship, there was spread the 

 common feeling of some catastrophe, and the sense of 

 a disturbance in nature utterly beyond any before ex- 

 perience by mariner. Several were convinced that the 

 day of final judgment had come. 



*' At 3 P.M. the sky began to grow a little lighter, 

 although the ashes and other volcanic matter continued 

 to fall. The bark hove short on her starboard anchor. 

 The barometer rose and fell rapidly and then became sta- 

 tionary. The whole ship, rigging and masts were coated 

 with sand and ashes to the depth of several inches. 



" August 27th began with light airs and thick, smoky 

 weather, and there was a dead calm through the day 

 and night. The men on the Besse saw vast quan- 

 tities of trees and dead fish floating by with the tide, the 

 water having a whitish appearance, caused by a surface 

 of light ashes. It was soon discovered that in the 



