approached the sloop.

The man who had put this curb upon the fury of the ocean took no rest.

The storm fortunately turned aside its fury for a moment. The fierce
attack of the waves was renewed upon the wall of the rock. There was a
respite, and Gilliatt took advantage of it to complete the interior
barrier.

The daylight faded upon his labours. The hurricane continued its
violence upon the flank of the rocks with a mournful solemnity. The
stores of fire and water in the sky poured out incessantly without
exhausting themselves. The undulations of the wind above and below were
like the movements of a dragon.

Nightfall brought scarcely any deeper night. The change was hardly felt,
for the darkness was never complete. Tempests alternately darkening and
illumining by their lightnings, are merely intervals of the visible and
invisible. All is pale glare, and then all is darkness. Spectral shapes
issue forth suddenly, and return as suddenly into the deep shade.

A phosphoric zone, tinged with the hue of the aurora borealis, appeared
like ghastly flames behind the dense clouds, giving to all things a wan
aspect, and making the rain-drifts luminous.

This uncertain light aided Gilliatt, and directed him in his operations.
By its help he was enabled to raise the forward barrier. The breakwater
was now almost complete. As he was engaged in making fast a powerful
cable to the last beam, the gale blew directly in his face. This
compelled him to raise his head. The wind had shifted abruptly to the
north-east. The assault upon the eastern gullet recommenced. Gilliatt
cast his eyes around the horizon. Another great wall of water was
approaching.

The wave broke with a great shock; a second followed; then another and
another still; then five or six almost together; then a last shock of
tremendous force.

This last wave, which was an accumulation of forces, had a singular
resemblance to a living thing. It would not have been difficult to
imagine in the midst of that swelling mass the shapes of fins and
gill-coverings. It fell heavily and broke upon the barriers. Its almost
animal form was torn to pieces in the shape of spouts and gushes,
resembling the crushing to death of some sea hydra upon that block of
rocks and timbers. The swell rushed through, subsiding but devastating
as it went. The huge wave seemed to bite and cling to its victim as it
died. The rock shook to its base. A savage howling mingled with the
roar; the