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.