VOYAGE TO ALGERIA 163 



scarcely a gleam of sunshine throughout the day, but the 

 cloud-forms were fine, and their apparent solidity impres- 

 sive. On Thursday morning the green of the sea was 

 displaced by a deep indigo blue. The whole of Thurs- 

 day we steamed across the bay. We had little blue sky, 

 but the clouds were again grand and varied — cirrus, stra- 

 tus, 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 some- 

 times occupied the whole horizon, while we steamed 

 across the rainless circle which was thus surrounded. 

 Sometimes 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 frag- 

 ments, 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 Kicol'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 morning we 

 sighted C^pe 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. Toward evening the wind strength- 



