THE CLOUDS AND WAVES 117 



running heavily in the same direction. A fresh gale 

 springs up, and blows with violence from a totally 

 different quarter, raising a new series of waves in con- 

 flict with the old ones, and producing a most haras- 

 sing, disturbing, and dangerous condition of affairs. 

 Sometimes this will happen in a part of the sea where 

 there is a current running, which adds to the trouble 

 of the waters, and then the state of matters is very 

 bad. Such an experience I once had off the Cape of 

 Good Hope. We had been struggling for some time 

 with a gale which was blowing diagonally across the 

 set of the current, raising an exceedingly ugly sea, 

 and making the vessel, which was heavily laden with 

 coal, bound to Bombay, wallow in the midst of the 

 waves, as if she were a half-tide rock, over which the 

 sea foamed incessantly. The gale died away very 

 rapidly, and sail was made in order to get away from 

 this stormy locality. The wind dropped to a calm, 

 while the vessel kept tumbling about like a drunken 

 man; then suddenly the wind sprang upon us from 

 the opposite quarter, like a lion from his lair, catching 

 us aback and driving us stern foremost into the seeth- 

 ing, uncertain welter of waves. For two or three 

 hours the fate of the vessel and all hands trembled in 

 the balance. The waves just tumbled on board of us 

 where they listed, and several immense masses pooped 

 us, i.e. came on board over the stern. We were so short- 

 handed that we could not get the sails handed quickly 

 enough, but fortunately they were old, and they blew 

 away. At last, when all hope seemed to be gone, we 

 got the vessel under control, and laid-to as nearly 

 head to wind as possible, and the wearied crew were 

 enabled to turn their attention to the pumps, there 



