316 THE ADVENTURES OF 



a large tract of the sea ahead of us was violently agitated. 

 An enormous column of water rapidly rose, and formed 

 something like a dark and terrible-looking column. After 

 about a quarter of an hour, the fearful phenomenon, which 

 fortunately had kept on moving before us, remained station- 

 ary. The volume, incessantly swelling, assumed a dark-blue 

 shade, while the column of water, which appeared to feed a 

 cloud, was of a gray color. A dull roaring noise like that 

 of distant thunder suddenly occurred. The column broke 

 in the middle, and the greater portion of the liquid fell into 

 the sea with a tremendous shock ; but the upper portion 

 sprinkled us with a heavy shower. Half an hour after- 

 wards we were sailing under a cloudless sky and over an 

 unruffled ocean. 



" And what would have happened if the water-spout had 

 reached the ship ?" 



" Wo should most likely have been swamped." 



"How dreadfully frightened you must have been, Ta- 

 tita !" 



" Yes, of course ; and I was not the only one who was in 

 terror ; for the officers and sailors' watched the course of the 

 water-spout with evident anxiety." 



Chatting in this way, we were now penetrating among 

 Indian fig-trees — Cactus opuntia — commonly called prickly- 

 pear trees. These plants, covered with yellow flowers, 

 would, a month later, have been hailed with shouts of joy, 

 for each of their upper stems would then bear one of those 

 juicy fruits of which the Creoles are so fond. Lucien stop- 

 ped in front of two or three of these plants, the dimensions 

 of which were well calculated to surprise him. Sumichrast 

 availed himself of this inspection to tell him that the cactus, 

 a word derived from the Greek, and meaning thorny, is a 

 native of America, and that it grows spontaneously in dry 

 and sandy soil. 



