he trade-winds.

"Yes, Mr. Kazallon," said Curtis, "our raft has been driven into the
region of storms, of which it has been justly remarked that any one
endowed with very sensitive organs can at any moment distinguish the
growlings of thunder."

"Hark!" I said, as I strained my ears to listen, "I think I can hear it
now."

"You can," he answered; "yet what you hear is but the first warning of
the storm which, in a couple of hours, will burst upon us with all its
fury. But never mind, we must be ready for it."

Sleep, even if we wished it, would have been impossible in that stifling
temperature. The lightning increased in brilliancy, and appeared from
all quarters of the horizon, each flash covering large arcs, varying
from 100deg. to 150deg., leaving the atmosphere pervaded by one
incessant phosphorescent glow.

The thunder became at length more and more distinct, the reports, if I
may use the expression, being "round," rather than rolling. It seemed
almost as though the sky were padded with heavy clouds of which the
elasticity muffled the sound of the electric bursts.

Hitherto, the sea had been calm, almost stagnant as a pond. Now,
however, long undulations took place, which the sailors recognized, all
too well, as being the rebound produced by a distant tempest. A ship, in
such a case, would have been instantly brought ahull, but no manoeuvring
could be applied to our raft, which could only drift before the blast.

At one o'clock in the morning one vivid flash, followed, after the
interval of a few seconds, by a loud report of thunder, announced that
the storm was rapidly approaching. Suddenly the horizon was enveloped in
a vapourous fog, and seemed to contract until it was close around us. At
the same instant the voice of one of the sailors was heard shouting,--

"A squall! a squall!"

CHAPTER XXXV.

DECEMBER 21st, NIGHT.--The boatswain rushed to the halliards that
supported the sail, and instantly lowered the yard; and not a moment too
soon, for with the speed of an arrow the squall was upon us, and if
it had not been for the sailor's timely warning we must all have been
knocked down and probably precipitated into the sea; as it was, our tent
on the back of the raft was carried away.

The raft itself, however, being so nearly level with the water, had
little peril to encounter from the actual wind; but from the mighty
waves now raised by the hurricane we had everything to dread. At first
the wave