to follow.

"The three of us--my two brothers and myself--had crossed over to the
islands about two o'clock P. M., and had soon nearly loaded the smack
with fine fish, which, we all remarked, were more plenty that day
than we had ever known them. It was just seven, _by my watch_, when we
weighed and started for home, so as to make the worst of the Stroem at
slack water, which we knew would be at eight.

"We set out with a fresh wind on our starboard quarter, and for some
time spanked along at a great rate, never dreaming of danger, for indeed
we saw not the slightest reason to apprehend it. All at once we
were taken aback by a breeze from over Helseggen. This was most
unusual--something that had never happened to us before--and I began to
feel a little uneasy, without exactly knowing why. We put the boat on
the wind, but could make no headway at all for the eddies, and I was
upon the point of proposing to return to the anchorage, when, looking
astern, we saw the whole horizon covered with a singular copper-colored
cloud that rose with the most amazing velocity.

"In the meantime the breeze that had headed us off fell away, and we
were dead becalmed, drifting about in every direction. This state of
things, however, did not last long enough to give us time to think about
it. In less than a minute the storm was upon us--in less than two the
sky was entirely overcast--and what with this and the driving spray, it
became suddenly so dark that we could not see each other in the smack.

"Such a hurricane as then blew it is folly to attempt describing. The
oldest seaman in Norway never experienced any thing like it. We had let
our sails go by the run before it cleverly took us; but, at the first
puff, both our masts went by the board as if they had been sawed
off--the mainmast taking with it my youngest brother, who had lashed
himself to it for safety.

"Our boat was the lightest feather of a thing that ever sat upon water.
It had a complete flush deck, with only a small hatch near the bow, and
this hatch it had always been our custom to batten down when about to
cross the Stroem, by way of precaution against the chopping seas. But for
this circumstance we should have foundered at once--for we lay entirely
buried for some moments. How my elder brother escaped destruction I
cannot say, for I never had an opportunity of ascertaining. For my part,
as soon as I had let the foresail run, I threw myself flat on deck,
with my feet