IN TEE COCOS-KEELING ISLANDS. 19 



the centre of dense clumps, selecting a single stem— a thick 

 tree of thirty years' growth — it had danced with it one light- 

 ning revolution, and left it a permanent spiral screw perfectly 

 turned, but otherwise uninjured. 



About midnight of the 28th, when intense darkness would 

 have prevailed but for the incessant blaze of lightning, whose 

 accompanying thunder was drowned by the roar of the tempest, 

 when every one was endeavouring to save what rice — the only 

 provision spared to them — they could, Mr. Eoss discovered to 

 his horror, the bowsprit of a vessel which had been lying at 

 anchor, riding on the top of a great wave straight for the wall 

 behind which they sheltered. There was just time to make 

 themselves fast before the water rushed over them, fortunately 

 without carrying the ship through the wall; a second wave 

 washed completely over the spot where Eoss's house had stood, 

 distant 150 yards from high-water mark. The storm attained 

 its height about one o'clock on the morning of the 29th. At that 

 hour nothing could resist the unsubstantial air, worked into a 

 fury ; no obstacle raised a foot or two above the ground could 

 resist its violence. The inhabitants saved themselves only 

 by lying in hollows of the ground. To what distance the 

 barometer might have fallen, it is impossible to say, for the 

 mercurial was carried away, and two aneroids gave in at 

 26^ inches. 



The following morning broke bright and calm, as if the 

 tempestuous riot of the night might have been an evil dream, 

 only not a speck of green could be seen anywhere within the 

 compass of the islands. Eound the whole atoll the solid coral 

 conglomerate floor was scooped under, broken up and thrown in 

 vast fragments on the beach. On the eastern shore of Home 

 Island, in particular just opposite the settlement, I observed 

 a wall of many yards breadth, portions of it thrown up clear 

 over the external high rim of the island, and several yards 

 inwards among the cocoanut trees, all along the margin of the 

 island. After six months, every tree and shrub was clothed 

 in verdure ; and before three years, they were in full bearing 

 again. 



About thirty-six hours after the cyclone the water on the 

 eastern side of the lagoon was observed to be lising up from 

 below of a dark colour. The origin of the sprifig, which 



