THE MONSOON. 
7 
sudden gusts of wind, that shortly died away, being 
succeeded by an intense, death-like stillness, as if the 
air were in a state of utter stagnation, and its vital 
properties arrested. It seemed no longer to circulate, 
until again agitated by the brief but mighty gusts 
which swept fiercely along, like the giant heralds of 
the storm. Meanwhile the lower circle of the hea- 
vens looked a deep brassy red, from the partial reflec- 
tion of the sunbeams upon the thick clouds, which had 
now everywhere overspread it. The sun had long 
passed the meridian, and his rays were slanting upon 
the gathering billows, when those black and threaten- 
ing ministers of the tempest rose rapidly towards the 
zenith. 
The dim horizon lowering vapours shroud, 
And blot the sun yet struggling through a clotid, 
Through the wide atmosphere, condensed with haze. 
His glowing orb emits a sanguine blaze. 
About four o’clock the whole sky was overspread, 
and the deep gloom of twilight was cast over the 
town and sea. The atmosphere was condensed al- 
most to the thickness of a mist, which was increased 
by the thin spray scattered over the land from the 
sea, by the violence of the increasing gales. The 
rain now began to fall in sheeted masses, and the 
wind to howl more continuously, which, mingling 
with the roaring of the surf, produced a tumultuous 
union of sounds, perfectly deafening. 
As the house which we occupied overlooked the 
beach, we could behold the setting in of the monsoon 
in all its grand and terrific sublimity. The wind, 
with a force which nothing could resist, bent the 
