lare similar to that produced by adding
salt to lighted alcohol.

"Are you afraid of a storm, Miss Herbey?" said Andre to the girl.

"No, Mr. Andre, my feelings are always rather those of awe than of
fear," she replied. "I consider a storm one of the sublimest phenomena
that we can behold--don't you think so too?"

"Yes, and especially when the thunder is pealing," he said; "that
majestic rolling, far different to the sharp crash of artillery, rises
and falls like the long-drawn notes of the grandest music, and I can
safely say that the tones of the most accomplished ARTISTE have never
moved me like that incomparable voice of nature."

"Rather a deep bass, though," I said, laughing.

"That may be," he answered; "but I wish we might hear it now, for this
silent lightning is somewhat unexpressive."

"Never mind that, Andre" I said; "enjoy a storm when it comes, if you
like, but pray don't wish for it."

"And why not?" said he; "a storm will bring us wind, you know."

"And water, too," added Miss Herbey, "the water of which we are so
seriously in need."

The young people evidently wished to regard the storm from their own
point of view, and although I could have opposed plenty of common sense
to their poetical sentiments, I said no more, but let them talk on as
they pleased for fully an hour.

Meantime the sky was becoming quite overclouded, and after the zodiacal
constellations had disappeared in the mists that hung round the horizon,
one by one the stars above our heads were veiled in dark rolling
masses of vapour, from which every instant there issued forth sheets of
electricity that formed a vivid background to the dark grey fragments of
cloud that floated beneath.

As the reservoir of electricity was confined to the higher strata of the
atmosphere, the lightning was still unaccompanied by thunder; but the
dryness of the air made it a weak conductor. Evidently the fluid could
only escape by terrible shocks, and the storm must ere long burst forth
with fearful violence.

This was the opinion of Curtis and the boatswain. The boatswain is only
weather-wise from his experience as a sailor; but Curtis, in addition to
his experience, has some scientific knowledge, and he pointed out to me
an appearance in the sky known to meteorologists as a "cloud-ring,"
and scarcely ever seen beyond the regions of the torrid zone, which are
impregnated by damp vapours brought from all quarters of the ocean by
the action of t