A NORTHER ON THE GULF MEXICO 
DECEMBER 27, 1894. 
After a pleasant Christmas day in the Harbor of 
Havanna and the summer weather of the 26th, we steamed 
out the narrow habor past picturesque El Moro and point- 
ed to the westward with a feeling of pleasant security 
and at-homeness upon the sea.  §§§ It was late in the 
evening and the sun had set behind a long castellated 
cloud hanging low on the horizon with a straight base 
line a little above the sea which line in the obscurity 
of dusk made a sort of false horizon, the placid, gently 
rolling sea,reflecting the upper sky, seeming to slope 
as an inclined eiata into the dusky distance. We 
lounged upon deck and enjoyed the restful scene turning 
often however to remark upon the curious cloud in the 
west with its growing silhouetted solidity and hard out- 
line which above was broken up into curious forms that 
reminded us of a serpent's head at the left, an alligator 
at the right and a lion above. The effect was that 
of a silhouette against the sky and directly ahead of us 
was a great ragged rent through the mass through which 
the greenish sky shown. Directly into the rent we were 
sailing and when we went down to bed we wondered if we 
-ghould actually pass through this rift so steadily did 
