1 10 FSA GMENTS OF SCIENCE. 
the long rollers were tossed by interference into heaps of 
greater height. The wind caught their crests, and scat- 
tered them over the sea, the whole surface of which was 
seething white. The aspect of the clouds was a fit accom- 
paniment to the fury of the ocean. The moon was almost 
full at times concealed, at times revealed, as the scud flew 
wildly over it. These things appealed to the eye, while the 
ear was filled by the groaning of the screw and the whistle 
and boom of the storm. 
Nor was the outward agitation the only object of interest 
to me. I was at once subject and object to myself, and 
watched with intense interest the workings of my own 
mind. The Urgent is an elderly ship. She had been 
built, I was told, by a contracting firm fo some foreign 
government, and had been diverted from her first purpose 
when converted into a troop-ship. She had been for some 
time out of work, and I had heard that one of her boilers, 
at least, needed repair. Our scanty but excellent crew, 
moreover, did not belong to the Urgent, but had been 
gathered from other ships. Our three lieutenants were 
also volunteers. All this passed swiftly through my mind 
as the steamer shook under the blows of the waves, and I 
thought that probably no one on board could say how 
much of this thumping and straining the Urgent would 
be able to bear. This uncertainty caused me to look 
steadily at the worst, and I tried to strengthen myself in 
the face of it. 
But at length the helm laid hold of the water, and the 
ship was got gradually round to face the waves. The 
rolling diminished, a certain amount of pitching taking its 
place. Our speed had fallen from eleven knots to two. I 
went again to bed. After a space of calm, when we seemed 
crossing the vortex of a storm, heavy tossing recommenced. 
I was afraid to allow myself to fall asleep; as my berth was 
high, and to be pitched out of it might be attended with 
bruises, if not with fractures. From Friday at noon to 
Saturday at noon we accomplished sixty-six miles, or an 
average of less than three miles an hour. I overheard the 
sailors talking about this storm. The Urgent, according 
to those that knew her, had never previously experienced 
anything like it. * 
* There is, it will be seen, a fair agreement between- these im- 
pressions and those so vigorously described by a scientific corre- 
spondent of the 
