rolling which the overfalls
caused, might be patiently borne, if only we could be assured that the
yawl progressed. But all was still left in doubt.

So sped the storm for eight long hours, with splendours for the eye, and
dark long thrills of the sublime, that stirred deep the whole inner being
with feelings vivid and strong, and loosed the most secret folds of
consciousness with thoughts I had never felt before, and perhaps shall
never know again. The mind conjured up the most telling scenes it had
known of "alone" and of "thunder," to compare with this where both were
now combined.

To stand on the top of Mont Blanc, that round white icicle highest in
Europe, and all alone to gaze on a hundred peaks around--that was indeed
impressive.

More so was it to kneel alone at the edge of Etna, and to fill the mind
from the smoking water with thoughts and fancies teeming out of the hot,
black, and wide abyss.

[Picture: Map of English Channel]

Thunder and lightning, also, in the crater of Vesuvius we had wondered at
before; and it had been grander still, when the flashes lighted up
Niagara pouring out its foam that glistened for a moment dazzling white
and then vanished, while the thundering heavens sounded louder than the
heavy torrent tumbling into the dark. But here, in my yawl on the sea,
was more splendid than these. Imagination painted its own free picture
on a black and boundless background of mind strung tight by near danger;
and from out this spoke the deep loud diapason, while the quick flashing
at intervals gave point to all. Then that glorious anthem came to my
memory, where these words of the 18th Psalm are nobly rendered:--

"He bowed the heavens and came down, and darkness was under His feet.

"He rode upon a cherub and did fly; yea, He did fly upon the wings of
the wind.

"He made darkness His secret place; the pavilion round about Him was
dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.

"The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Highest gave His
voice: hailstones and coals of fire.

"Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the
world were discovered: at Thy rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the
breath of Thy nostrils.

"He sent down from above, He took me, He drew me up out of many
waters."

The sensations were prolonged enough to be analyzed and reasoned upon,
and it was a difficult question which ca