1 10 Fit A 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 limes. 



