VOYAGff 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 Spit head. 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, Bern bridge, 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 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, 



