flashes,
foretelling nasty weather. During the past few days it had been too fine
to last. The winds blew upon that swarm of boats, as if to clear the sea
of them; and they began to disperse and flee, like an army put to rout,
before the warning written in the air, beyond possibility to misread.
Harder and harder it blew, making men and ships quake alike.

And the still tiny waves began to run one after another and to melt
together; at first they were frosted over with white foam spread out
in patches; and then, with a whizzing sound, arose smoke as though
they burned and scorched, and the whistling grew louder every moment.
Fish-catching was no longer thought of; it was their work on deck. The
fishing lines had been drawn in, and all hurried to make sail and some
to seek for shelter in the fjords, while yet others preferred to round
the southern point of Iceland, finding it safer to stand for the open
sea, with the free space about them, and run before the stern wind. They
could still see each other a while: here and there, above the trough of
the sea, sails wagged as poor wearied birds fleeing; the masts tipped,
but ever and anon righted, like the weighted pith figures that similarly
resume an erect attitude when released after being blown down.

The illimitable cloudy roof, erstwhile compacted towards the western
horizon, in an island form, began to break up on high and send its
fragments over the surface. It seemed indestructible, for vainly did
the winds stretch it, pull and toss it asunder, continually tearing
away dark strips, which they waved over the pale yellow sky, gradually
becoming intensely and icily livid. Ever more strongly grew the wind
that threw all things in turmoil.

The cruiser had departed for shelter at Iceland; some fishers alone
remained upon the seething sea, which now took an ill-boding look and a
dreadful colour. All hastily made preparations for bad weather. Between
one and another the distance grew greater, till some were lost sight of.

The waves, curling up in scrolls, continued to run after each other,
to reassemble and climb on one another, and between them the hollows
deepened.

In a few hours, everything was belaboured and overthrown in these
regions that had been so calm the day before, and instead of the
past silence, the uproar was deafening. The present agitation was a
dissolving view, unconscientious and useless, and quickly accomplished.
What was the object of it all? Wha