Then the storm began to rage indeed. Flash followed flash, peal
followed peal in quick succession. Our eyes were blinded, our
ears deafened, with the roar and glare. The clouds above, the
ocean beneath, seemed verily to have taken fire, and several
times I saw forked lightnings dart upwards from the crest of the
waves, and mingle with those that radiated from the fiery vault
above. A strong odour of sulphur pervaded the air, but though
thunderbolts fell thick around us, not one had touched our raft.
By two o'clock the storm had reached its height. The hurricane
had increased, and the heavy waves, heated to a strange heat by
the general temperature, dashed over us until we were drenched to
the skin. Curtis, Dowlas, the boatswain, and the sailors did
what they could to strengthen the raft with additional ropes. M.
Letourneur placed himself in front of Andre to shelter him from
the waves. Miss Herbey stood upright and motionless as a statue.
Soon dense masses of lurid clouds came rolling up, and a
crackling, like the rattle of musketry, resounded through the
air. This was produced by a series of electrical concussions, in
which volleys of hailstones were discharged from the cloud-
batteries above. In fact, as the storm-sheet came in contact
with a current of cold air, hail was formed with great rapidity,
and hailstones, large as nuts, came pelting down, making the
platform of the raft re-echo with a metallic ring.
For about half an hour the meteoric shower continued to descend,
and during that time the wind slightly abated in violence; but
after having shifted from quarter to quarter, it once more blew
with all its former fury.
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