THE cyclone’s centre. 
59 
and went singing to leeward with furious velocity. 
^Hard up the helm, to keep her before the gale:’ and, 
as the wheel turned heavilj^ around, I saw a beautiful sight. 
It had been blowing a moderate gale for the last twelve 
hours; a heavy swell had been rolling directly against it, 
and the gale of course had got up its own sea, which 
ran against and on top of the swell. Ifow this sudden 
shifting of the wind brought its new direction almost at 
right angles -with both sea and swell, besides getting up 
a cross-sca; and, as one of the former came tumbling on 
our quarter, (the ship herself hopping about like an 
India-rubber ball,) a violent squall got under its curved 
crest, and, lifting it bodily up, seemed all at once to change 
from a squall to a furious whirlwind. The result can be 
- better imagined than described. This vast volume of 
water, held in suspension, as it were, by a po-werful cur- 
rent of air that seemed to revolve upon its own axis, 
and lifting itself between us and the dazzling rays of a 
meridian sun, reflected the various hues of the rainbow 
for a moment, and then, torn and scattered into giant 
drops and driving mist, made the sea foam under its 
descent and saturated us with its whirling spray. It 
was a beautiful sight, and, though in or near the centre 
of one of the dreaded cyclones, we took time to ad- 
mire it.” 
“ Nov. 21. — I borrowed ^ old bust-proof’ from the purser 
this morning and went on deck to shoot an old Cape- 
albatross, gray Avith age, and measuring at least twelve 
feet from pinion to pinion. He SAvept Avithin thirty or 
forty yards of me several times, but could never be per- 
suaded to ^turn his back’ so that the shot might pene- 
