n that we
drifted into one of the innumerable cross-currents--here to-day and gone
to-morrow--which drove us under the lee of Flimen, where by good luck we
brought up.

"I could not tell you the twentieth part of the difficulties we
encountered 'on the ground'--it is a bad spot to be in, even in good
weather; but we made shift always to run the gantlet of the Moskoe-stroem
itself without accident, although at times my heart has been in my mouth
when we happened to be a minute or so behind or before the slack.

"It is now within a few days of three years since what I am going to tell
you occurred. It was on the 10th of July, 18--; a day which the people of
this part of the world will never forget, for it was one in which blew the
most terrible hurricane that ever came out of the heavens.

"And yet all the morning, and indeed until late in the afternoon, there
was a gentle and steady breeze from the southwest, while the sun shone
brightly, so that the oldest seaman among us could not have foreseen what
was to follow.

"The three of us--my two brothers and myself--had crossed over to the
islands about two o'clock P.M., and soon nearly loaded the smack with fine
fish; which, we all remarked, were more plenty that day than we had ever
known them. It was just seven, by my watch, when we weighed and started
for home, so as to make the worst of the Stroem at slack water, which we
knew would be at eight.

"We set out with a fresh wind at our starboard quarter, and for some time
spanked along at a great rate, never dreaming of danger; for indeed we saw
not the slightest reason to apprehend it. All at once we were taken aback
by a breeze from over Helseggen. This was most unusual; something that had
never happened to us, and I began to feel a little uneasy, without exactly
knowing why. We put the boat on the wind, but could make no headway at all
for the eddies; and I was upon the point of proposing to return to the
anchorage, when, looking astern, we saw the whole horizon covered with a
singular copper-colored cloud that rose with the most amazing velocity.

"In the meantime, the breeze that had headed us off fell away; and we were
dead becalmed, drifting about in every direction. This state of things,
however, did not last long enough to give us time to think about it.

"In less than a minute the storm was upon us; in less than two the sky was
entirely overcast; and what with this and the driving spray, it became
suddenly