VOYAGE TO ALGERIA. 107 
the long-continued repetition of the glows which rendered 
the volcanic theory highly probable. 
CHAPTER VI. 
VOYAGE TO ALGERIA TO OBSERVE THE ECLIPSE. 
1870. 
THE OPENING of the Eclipse Expedition was not pro- 
pitious. Portsmouth, on Monday, December 5, 1870, was 
swathed by fog, which was intensified by smoke, and trav- 
ersed by a drizzle of fine rain. At six P.M. I was on board 
the Urgent. On Tuesday morning the weather was too 
thick to permit of the ship being swung and her com- 
passes calibrated. The admiral of the port, a man of very 
noble presence, came on board. Under his stimulus the 
energy which the weather had damped appeared to become 
more active, and soon after his departure we steamed down 
to Spithead. Here the fog had so far lightened as to en- 
able the officers to swing the ship. 
At three P.M. on Tuesday, December 6, we got away, 
gliding successively past Whitecliff Bay, Bembridge, San- 
down, Shanklin, Ventuor, and St. Catherine's Lighthouse. 
On Wednesday morning we sighted the Isle of Ushant, on 
the French side of the Channel. The northern end of the 
island has been fretted by the waves into detached tower- 
like masses of rock of very remarkable appearance. In the 
Channel the sea was green, and opposite Ushant it was a 
brighter green. On Wednesday evening we committed 
ourselves to the bay of Biscay. The roll of the Atlantic 
was full, but not violent. There had been scarcely a gleam 
of sunshine throughout the day, but the cloud-forms were 
fine, and their apparent solidity impressive. On Thursday 
morning the green of the sea was displaced by a deep in- 
digo blue. The whole of Thursday we steamed across the 
bay. We had little blue sky, but the clouds were again grand 
and varied cimis, stratus, cumulus, and nimbus, we had 
them all. Dusty hair~like trails were sometimes dropped 
from the distant clouds to the sea. These were falling 
showers, and they sometimes occupied the whole horizon, 
