e between
Neapeague and the point, the road makes a sweeping detour to the south,
bringing us nearer to the sea-cliff, and we hastened to reach the
lighthouse before the night made the rough track dangerous. The sky was
threatening, and had to the west and north-west an aspect ominous of
storm. It was on that night that Wallingford was swept almost out of
existence by a tornado. Before we arrived at the lighthouse the
lightning was playing brilliantly over the dense mass of clouds that
overhung the Connecticut shore. Gradually the black bank drifted
eastward, and then to the south, and as it drew near the rumble of the
thunder became more audible. By and by a counter-current of wind seemed
to set in toward the south-west, and a part of the huge vapory mass was
broken off from the rest and whirled directly overhead. The unceasing
roar of the surf was drowned by the thunder, and the foam-crested waves
that came curling into Turtle Bay were lit up by the glare of the
lightning. Toward the east the darting forks of fire seemed now to flash
down into the inky sea, and now to throw a baleful and blinding light
around the lighthouse. What made the phenomenon singular was that the
wind had been blowing a southerly gale all day, and that for a time the
motion of the clouds appeared to be entirely independent of the wind. A
heavy rainstorm accompanied the thunder, and it was in the midst of this
elemental chaos that we first looked out upon the ocean from Womponomon.
Soon, however, the heavy cloud passed away to sea, and again

The pale and quiet moon
Makes her calm forehead bare.

[Illustration: THE CLIFFS OF MONTAUK.]

In the morning a dull gray sky hung over the still-vext ocean, and upon
its long swell a few fishing craft were riding at anchor. The view from
the lighthouse, the lantern of which was presented to the United States
by the French government, is worth all and far more than is ever likely
to be passed through in reaching it. Block Island lay like a dark mark
deepening the horizon-line, and to the south and east were ships passing
gallantly out to sea. To the north the view was hazy, and to the west
were the hills of Montauk and glimpses of its ponds. Round the point the
water was comparatively still, but the long swell was breaking grandly
among the boulders on the south. Below the lantern is the room in which
the keepers maintain their vigils, listening to the roar of the wind,
and occas