blustering to furious; and we went out with the promise of a gale
which did not with evening "in the west sink smilingly forsworn." The
_Iroquois_ ran through Tsugaru Strait under canvas, with a barometer
rather tumbling than falling, and an east wind fast freshening to
heavy. We knew it must end at northwest; but it lasted till afternoon
of the next day, so we got a good offing. The shift of the wind was in
its accompaniments spectacular--and cyclonic. The morning of the 13th
was among the wildest I have seen. Daylight came a half-hour late,
with a lurid sky; the clouds, the confused, heaving water, the sails,
spars, and deck of the ship herself, all as if seen in a Lorraine
glass. It having become nearly calm, she lay thrashing aimlessly in
the swell, unsteadied by the canvas. The barometer still fell slowly
till two in the afternoon, when it stopped, and we began to look out.

"First rise, after very low
Indicates a stronger blow."

At three it rose one one-hundredth of an inch, and almost
simultaneously, looking over the weather rail, was to be seen the
oncoming northwester, never long in debt to a southeaster. First a
gleaming white line of foam beneath the sombre horizon, gradually
spreading to right and left, and visibly widening as it drew near.
Soon its deepening surface broke to view into innumerable separate
wave-crests, which advanced leaping in tumultuous accord, like the
bounding rush of a pack of wolves, whom you may see, and whose howling
you can imagine but do not yet hear. As Kingsley has said, "It looks
so dangerous, and you are so safe"--all the thrill, yet none of the
apprehension. The new gale struck the _Iroquois_ in full force. Within
twenty minutes it had reached its height, and so continued for near
forty-eight hours, during thirty-six of which the hatches were
battened down. For a time the two seas, the old and the new, fought
each other to our discomfort; but the old yielded, and, as the new got
its even, regular swing, the _Iroquois_ agreed with its enemy of the
moment and rode easily.

With our arrival at Shanghai we had left behind whatever in the cruise
of the _Iroquois_ could be considered exceptional as to incident; that
is, while I remained with her. From December, 1868, we entered in
China upon the usual routine of station movement; interesting enough
at the time, but from which my memory retains nothing noteworthy.
Subsequently we visited Formosa and Manila and Hong Kong;