130 TEE CRUISE OF THE " CACHALOTS 



had broken, so gloomy and dark was the sky. At last 

 light came in the east, but such a light as no one would 

 wish to see. It was a lurid glare, such as may be 

 seen playing over a cupola of Bessemer steel when the 

 speigeleisen is added, only on such an extensive scale 

 that its brilliancy was dulled into horror. Then, beneath 

 it we saw the mountainous clouds fringed with dull 

 violet and with jagged sabres of lightning darting from 

 their solid black bosoms. The wind began to rise 

 steadily but rapidly, so that by eight a.m. it was blowing 

 a furious gale from E.N.E. In direction it was still 

 unsteady, the ship coming up and falling off to it several 

 points. Now, great masses of torn, ragged cloud hurtled 

 past us above, bo low down as almost to touch the mast- 

 heads. Still the wind increased, still the sea rose, till 

 at last the skipper judged it well to haul down the tiny 

 triangle of storm stay-sail still set (the topsail and fore 

 stay-sail had been furled long before), and let her drift 

 under bare poles, except for three square feet of stout 

 canvas in the weather mizen-rigging. The roar of 

 the wind now dominated every sound, so that it might 

 have been thundering furiously, but we should not 

 have heard it. The ship still maintained her splendid 

 character as a sea-boat, hardly shipping a drop of water; 

 but she lay over at a most distressing angle, her deck 

 sloping off fully thirty-five to forty degrees. Fortu- 

 nately she did not roll to windward. It may have been 

 raining in perfect torrents, but the tempest tore off the 

 surface of the sea, and sent it in massive sheets con- 

 tinually flying over us, so that we could not possibly 

 have distinguished between fresh water and salt. 



The chief anxiety was for the safety of the boats. 

 Early on the second day of warning they had been 



