Chapter 35 - Page 2

motionless in a sluggish, waveless sea. But if we havenow ceased to advance why do we yet leave that sail loose, which atthe first shock of the tempest may capsize us in a moment?

"Let us reef the sail and cut the mast down!" I cried. "That will besafest."

"No, no! Never!" shouted my impetuous uncle. "Never! Let the windcatch us if it will! What I want is to get the least glimpse of rockor shore, even if our raft should be smashed into shivers!"

The words were hardly out of his mouth when a sudden change tookplace in the southern sky. The piled-up vapours condense into water;and the air, put into violent action to supply the vacuum left by thecondensation of the mists, rouses itself into a whirlwind. It rusheson from the farthest recesses of the vast cavern. The darknessdeepens; scarcely can I jot down a few hurried notes. The helm makesa bound. My uncle falls full length; I creep close to him. He haslaid a firm hold upon a rope, and appears to watch with grimsatisfaction this awful display of elemental strife.

Hans stirs not. His long hair blown by the pelting storm, and laidflat across his immovable countenance, makes him a strange figure;for the end of each lock of loose flowing hair is tipped with littleluminous radiations. This frightful mask of electric sparks suggeststo me, even in this dizzy excitement, a comparison with preadamiteman, the contemporary of the ichthyosaurus and the megatherium. [1]

[1] Rather of the mammoth and the mastodon. (Trans.)

The mast yet holds firm. The sail stretches tight like a bubble readyto burst. The raft flies at a rate that I cannot reckon, but not sofast as the foaming clouds of spray which it dashes from side to sidein its headlong speed.

"The sail! the sail!" I cry, motioning to lower it.

"No!" replies my uncle.

"_Nej!_" repeats Hans, leisurely shaking his head.

But now the rain forms a rushing cataract in front of that horizontoward which we are running with such maddening speed. But before ithas reached us the rain cloud parts asunder, the sea boils, and theelectric fires are brought into violent action by a mighty chemicalpower that descends from the higher regions. The most vivid flashesof lightning are mingled with the violent crash of continuousthunder. Ceaseless fiery arrows dart in and out amongst the flyingthunder-clouds; the vaporous mass soon glows with incandescent heat;hailstones rattle fiercely down, and as they dash upon our iron toolsthey too emit gleams and flashes of lurid light. The heaving wavesresemble fiery volcanic hills, each belching forth its own interiorflames, and every crest is plumed with dancing fire. My eyes failunder the dazzling light, my ears are stunned with the incessantcrash of thunder. I must be bound to the mast, which bows like a reedbefore the mighty strength of the storm.

(Here my notes become vague and indistinct. I have only been able