VOYAGE TO ALGERIA. 143 



fine, and their apparent solidity impressive. On Thurs- 

 day morning the green of the sea was displaced by a 

 deep indigo blue. The whole of Thursday we steamed 

 across the bay. We had little blue sky, but the clouds 

 were again grand and varied cirrus, stratus, cumulus, 

 and nimbus, we had them all. Dusky hair-like trails 

 were sometimes dropped from the distant clouds to the 

 sea. These were falling showers, and they sometimes 

 occupied the whole horizon, while we steamed across 

 the rainless circle which was thus surrounded. Some- 

 times we plunged into the rain, and once or twice, by 

 slightly changing our course, avoided a heavy shower. 

 From time to time perfect rainbows spanned the heavens 

 from side to side. At times a bow would appear in 

 fragments, showing the keystone of the arch midway in 

 air, and its two buttresses on the horizon. In all cases 

 the light of the bow could be quenched by a Nicol's 

 prism, with its long diagonal tangent to the arc. 

 Sometimes gleaming patches of the firmament were 

 seen amid the clouds. When viewed in the proper 

 direction, the gleam could be quenched by a Nicol's 

 prism, a dark aperture being thus opened into stellar 

 space. 



At sunset on Thursday the denser clouds were 

 fiercely fringed, while through the lighter ones seemed 

 to issue the glow of a conflagration. On Friday morn- 

 ing we sighted Cape Finisterre the extreme end of 

 the arc which sweeps from Ushant round the Bay of 

 Biscay. Calm spaces of blue, in which floated quietly 

 scraps of cumuli, were behind us, but in front of us was 

 a horizon of portentous darkness. It continued thus 

 threatening throughout the day. Towards evening the 

 wind strengthened to a gale, and at dinner it was dim- 

 cult to preserve the plates and dishes from destruction. 

 Our thinned company hinted that the rolling had other 



