134 ELIZABETH CARY AGASSIZ 
next fire in this solitary place. The evening was so 
clear that no one anticipated a change of weather, and 
everybody being tired we all retired early and were 
sound asleep, when towards midnight we were wak- 
ened by the most brilliant and incessant lightning; 
the whole sky seemed quivering with it. Presently 
came pouring rain and then a storm of hail that 
sounded like a discharge of musketry on the deck. 
We all came running out of our rooms in the most 
singular costumes to see what was the matter. Waked 
so suddenly from sleep one thought the powder mag- 
azine was exploding, another, that the vessel was on 
fire and the sharp clattering was the crackling of 
wood. I had started with the first rain and fortu- 
nately closed all the ports and skylight in our room, 
or we should have been well pelted. I wondered how 
the men on deck could stand it. They brought us 
down many of the stones, but they melted so fast 
that those I saw were not larger than good-sized 
marbles or hazel nuts; but they said in falling many 
were as large as hen’s eggs or walnuts. I remember 
Darwin in his narrative speaks of the hailstones here 
as very large and says the “‘guanacos” are sometimes 
killed by them. I can easily imagine it; an animal 
would stand a bad chance in these wide shelterless 
plains under such a fire of ice shot as we had last 
night. The rest of the night was quiet as possible, and 
this morning we have fine weather again. 
Our next stopping place so far as we know at pres- 
ent is to be the Santa Cruz River shortly before en- 
tering the Straits. 
