successively past Whitecliff Bay, Bembridge, Sandown, Shanklin,
Ventnor, and St. Catherine's Lighthouse. On Wednesday morning we
sighted the Isle of Ushant, on the French side of the Channel. The
northern end of the island has been fretted by the waves into detached
tower-like masses of rock of very remarkable appearance. In the
Channel the sea was green, and opposite Ushant it was a brighter
green. On Wednesday evening we committed ourselves to the Bay of
Biscay. The roll of the Atlantic was full, but not violent. There
had been scarcely a gleam of sunshine throughout the day, but the
cloud-forms were fine, and their apparent solidity impressive. On
Thursday morning the green of the sea was displaced by a deep indigo
blue. The whole of Thursday we steamed across the bay. We had little
blue sky, but the clouds were again grand and varied--cirrus, stratus,
cumulus, and nimbus, we had them all. Dusky hair-like trails were
sometimes dropped from the distant clouds to the sea.
These were falling showers, and they sometimes occupied the whole
horizon, while we steamed across the rainless circle which was thus
surrounded. Sometimes we plunged into the rain, and once or twice, by
slightly changing our course, avoided a heavy shower. From time to
time perfect rainbows spanned the heavens from side to side. At times
a bow would appear in fragments, showing the keystone of the arch
midway in air, and its two buttresses on the horizon. In all cases
the light of the bow could be quenched by a Nicol's prism, with its
long diagonal tangent to the arc. Sometimes gleaming patches of the
firmament were seen amid the clouds. When viewed in the proper
direction, the gleam could be quenched by a Nicol's prism, a dark
aperture being thus opened into stellar space.
At sunset on Thursday the denser clouds were fiercely fringed, while
through the lighter ones seemed to issue the glow of a conflagration.
On Friday morning we sighted Cape Finisterre--the extreme end of the
arc which sweeps from Ushant round the Bay of Biscay. Calm spaces of
blue, in which floated quietly scraps of cumuli, were behind us, but
in front of us was a horizon of portentous darkness. It continued
thus threatening throughout the day. Towards evening the wind
strengthened to a gale, and at dinner it was difficult to preserve the
plates and dishes from destruction. Our thinned company hinted that
the rolling had other consequences. It was very wild when we went to
bed. I slumbered and slept, but after some time was rendered
anxiously conscious that my body had become a kind of projectile, with
the ship's side for a target. I gripped the edge of my berth to save
myself from being thrown out. Outside, I could hear somebody say that
he had been thrown from his berth, and sent spinning to the other side
of the saloon. The screw laboured violently amid the lurching; it
incessantly quitted the water, and, twirling in the air, rattled
against its bearings, causing the ship to shudder from stem to stern.
At times the waves struck us, not with the soft impact which might be
expected from a liquid, but with the sudden solid shock of
battering-rams. 'No man knows the force of water,' said one of the
officers,' until he has experienced a storm at sea.' These blows
followed each other at quicker intervals, the screw rattling after
each of them, until, finally, the delivery of a heavier stroke than
ordinary seemed to reduce the saloon to chaos. Furniture crashed,
glasses rang, and alarmed enquiries immediately followed. Amid the
noises I heard one note of forced laughter; it sounded very ghastly.
Men tramped through the saloon, and busy voices were heard aft, as if
something there had gone wrong.
I rose, and not without difficulty got into my clothes. In the
after-cabin, under the superintendence of the able and energetic
navigating lieutenant, Mr. Brown, a group of blue-jackets were working
at the tiller-ropes. These had become loose, and the helm refused to
answer the wheel. High moral lessons might be gained on shipboard, by
observing what steadfast adherence to an object can accomplish, and
what large effects are heaped up by the addition of infinitesimals.
The tiller-rope, as the blue-jackets strained in concert, seemed
hardly to move; still it did move a little, until finally, by timing
the pull to the lurching of the ship, the mastery of the rudder was
obtained. I had previously gone on deck. Round the saloon-door were
a few members of the eclipse party, who seemed in no mood for
scientific observation. Nor did I; but I wished to see the storm. I
climbed the steps to the poop, exchanged a word with Captain Toynbee,
the only member of the party to be seen on the poop, and by his
direction made towards a cleat not far from the wheel. [Footnote: The
cleat is a T-shaped mass of metal employed for the fastening of
ropes.] Round it I coiled my arms. With the exception of the men at
the wheel, who stood as silent as corpses, I was alone.
I had seen grandeur elsewhere, but this was a new form of grandeur to
me. The "Urgent" is long and narrow, and during our expedition she
lacked the steadying influence of sufficient ballast. She was for a
time practically rudderless, and lay in the trough of the sea. I
could see the long ridges, with some hundreds of feet between their
crests, rolling upon the ship perfectly parallel to her sides. As
they approached, they so grew upon the eye as to render the expression
'mountains high' intelligible. At all events, there was no mistaking
their mechanical might, as they took the ship upon their shoulders,
and swung her like a pendulum. The deck sloped sometimes at an angle
which I estimated at over forty-five degrees; wanting my previous
Alpine practice, I should have felt less confidence in my grip of the
cleat. Here and there the long rollers were tossed by interference
into heaps of greater height. The wind caught their crests, and
scattered them over the sea, the whole surface of which was seething
white. The aspect of the clouds was a fit accompaniment to the fury
of the ocean. The moon was almost full--at times concealed, at times
revealed, as the scud flew wildly over it. These things appealed to
the eye, while the ear was filled by the groaning of the screw and the
whistle and boom of the storm.
Nor was the outward agitation the only object of interest to me. I
was at once subject and object to myself, and watched with intense
interest the workings of my own mind. The "Urgent" is an elderly
ship. She had been built, I was told, by a contracting firm for some
foreign Government, and had been diverted from her first purpose when
converted into a troop-ship. She had been for some time out of work,
and I had heard that one of her boilers, at least, needed repair. Our
scanty but excellent crew, moreover, did not belong to the "Urgent,"
but had been gathered from other ships. Our three lieutenants were
also volunteers. All this passed swiftly through my mind as the
steamer shook under the blows of the waves, and I thought that
probably no one on board could say how much of this thumping and
straining the "Urgent" would be able to bear. This uncertainty caused
me to look steadily at the worst, and I tried to strengthen myself in
the face of it.
But at length the helm laid hold of the water, and the ship was got
gradually round to face the waves. The rolling diminished, a certain
amount of pitching taking its place. Our speed had fallen from eleven
knots to two. I went again to bed. After a space of calm, when we
seemed crossing the vortex of a storm, heavy tossing recommenced. I
was afraid to allow myself to fall asleep, as my berth was high, and
to be pitched out of it might be attended with bruises, if not with
fractures. From Friday at noon to Saturday at noon we accomplished
sixty-six miles, or an average of less than three miles an hour. I
overheard the sailors talking about this storm. The "Urgent,"
according to those that knew her, had never previously experienced
anything like it. [Footnote: 'There is, it will be seen, a fair
agreement between these impressions and those so vigorously described
by a scientific correspondent of the 'Times.']
All through Saturday the wind, though somewhat sobered, blew dead
against us. The atmospheric effects were exceedingly fine. The
cumuli resembled mountains in shape, and their peaked summits
shone as white as Alpine snows. At one place this resemblance was
greatly strengthened by a vast area of cloud, uniformly illuminated,
and lying like a _névé_ below the peaks. From it fell a kind of
cloud-river strikingly like a glacier. The horizon at sunset was
remarkable--spaces of brilliant green between clouds of fiery red.
Rainbows had been frequent throughout the day, and at night a
perfectly continuous lunar bow spanned the heavens from side to side.
Its colours were feeble; but, contrasted with the black ground against
which it rested, its luminousness was extraordinary.
Sunday morning found us opposite to Lisbon, and at midnight we rounded
Cape St. Vincent, where the lurching seemed disposed to recommence.
Through the kindness of Lieutenant Walton, a cot had been slung for
me. It hung between a tiller-wheel and a flue, and at one A.M. I was
roused by the banging of the cot against its boundaries. But the wind
was now behind us, and we went along at a speed of eleven knots. We
felt certain of reaching Cadiz by three. But a new lighthouse came in
sight, which some affirmed to be Cadiz Lighthouse, while the
surrounding houses were declared to be those of Cadiz itself. Out of
deference to these statements, the navigating lieutenant changed his
course, and steered for the place. A pilot came on board, and he
informed us that we were before the mouth of the Guadalquivir, and
that the lighthouse was that of Cipiòna. Cadiz was still some
eighteen miles distant.
We steered towards the city, hoping to get into the harbour before
dark. But the pilot who would have guided us had been snapped up by
another vessel, and we did not get in. We beat about during the
night, and in the morning found ourselves about fifteen miles from
Cadiz. The sun rose behind the city, and we steered straight into the
light. The three-towered cathedral stood in the midst, round which
swarmed apparently a multitude of chimney-stacks. A nearer approach
showed the chimneys to be small turrets. A pilot was taken on board;
for there is a dangerous shoal in the harbour. The appearance of the
town as the sun shone upon its white and lofty walls was singularly
beautiful. We cast anchor; some officials arrived and demanded a
clean bill of health. We had none. They would have nothing to do
with us; so the yellow quarantine flag was hoisted, and we waited for
permission to land the Cadiz party. After some hours' delay the
English consul and vice-consul came on board, and with them a Spanish
officer ablaze with gold lace and decorations. Under slight pressure
the requisite permission had been granted. We landed our party, and
in the afternoon weighed anchor. Thanks to the kindness of our
excellent paymaster, I was here transferred to a more roomy berth.
Cadiz soon sank beneath the sea, and we sighted in succession Cape
Trafalgar, Tarifa, and the revolving light of Ceuta. The water was
very calm, and the moon rose in a quiet heaven. She swung with her
convex surface downwards, the common boundary between light and shadow
being almost horizontal. A pillar of reflected light shimmered up to
us from the slightly rippled sea. I had previously noticed the
phosphorescence of the water, but tonight it was stronger than usual,
especially among the foam at the bows. A bucket let down into the sea
brought up a number of the little sparkling organisms which caused the
phosphorescence. I caught some of them in my hand. And here an
appearance was observed which was new to most of us, and strikingly
beautiful to all. Standing at the bow and looking forwards, at a
distance of forty or fifty yards from the ship, a number of luminous
streamers were seen rushing towards us. On nearing the vessel they
rapidly turned, like a comet round its perihelion, placed themselves
side by side, and, in parallel trails of light, kept up with the ship.
One of them placed itself right in front of the bow as a pioneer.
These comets of the sea were joined at intervals by others. Sometimes
as many as six at a time would rush at us, bend with extraordinary
rapidity round a sharp curve, and afterwards keep us company. I
leaned over the bow, and scanned the streamers closely. The frontal
portion of each of them revealed the outline of a porpoise. The rush
of the creatures through the water had started the phosphorescence,
every spark of which was converted by the motion of the retina into a
line of light. Each porpoise was thus wrapped in a luminous sheath.
The phosphorescence did not cease at the creature's tail, but was
carried many porpoise-lengths behind it.
To our right we had the African hills, illuminated by the moon.
Gibraltar Rock at length became visible, but the town remained long
hidden by a belt of haze, through which at length the brighter lamps
struggled. It was like the gradual resolution of a nebula into stars.
As the intervening depth became gradually less, the mist vanished more
and more, and finally all the lamps shone through it They formed a
bright foil to the sombre mass of rock above them. The sea was so
calm and the scene so lovely that Mr. Huggins and myself stayed on
deck till near midnight, when the ship was moored. During our walking
to and fro a striking enlargement of the disk of Jupiter was
observed, whenever the heated air of the funnel came between us and
the planet. On passing away from the heated air, the flat dim disk
would immediately shrink to a luminous point. The effect was one of
visual persistence. The retinal image of the planet was set quivering
in all azimuths by the streams of heated air, describing in quick
succession minute lines of light, which summed themselves to a disk of
sensible area.
At six o'clock next morning, the gun at the Signal Station on the
summit of the rock, boomed. At eight the band on board the
'Trafalgar' training-ship, which was in the harbour, struck up the
national anthem; and immediately afterwards a crowd of mite-like
cadets swarmed up the rigging. After the removal of the apparatus
belonging to the Gibraltar party we went on shore. Winter was in
England when we left, but here we had the warmth of summer. The
vegetation was luxuriant--palm-trees, cactuses, and aloes, all ablaze
with scarlet flowers. A visit to the Governor was proposed, as an act
of necessary courtesy, and I accompanied Admiral Ommaney and Mr.
Huggins to 'the Convent,' or Government House. We sent in our cards,
waited for a time, and were then conducted by an orderly to his
Excellency. He is a fine old man, over six feet high, and of frank
military bearing. He received us and conversed with us in a very
genial manner. He took us to see his garden, his palms, his shaded
promenades, and his orange-trees loaded with fruit, in all of which he
took manifest delight. Evidently 'the hero of Kars' had fallen upon
quarters after his own heart. He appeared full of good nature, and
engaged us on the spot to dine with him that day.
We sought the town-major for a pass to visit the lines. While
awaiting his arrival I purchased a stock of white glass bottles, with
a view to experiments on the colour of the sea. Mr. Huggins and
myself, who wished to see the rock, were taken by Captain Salmond to
the library, where a model of Gibraltar is kept, and where we had a
useful preliminary lesson. At the library we met Colonel Maberly, a
courteous and kindly man, who gave us good advice regarding our
excursion. He sent an orderly with us to the entrance of the lines.
The orderly handed us over to an intelligent Irishman, who was
directed to show us everything that we desired to see, and to hide
nothing from us. We took the 'upper line,' traversed the galleries
hewn through the limestone; looked through the embrasures, which
opened like doors in the precipice, towards the hills of Spain;
reached St. George's hall, and went still higher, emerging on the
summit of one of the noblest cliffs I have ever seen.
Beyond were the Spanish lines, marked by a line of white sentry-boxes;
nearer were the English lines, less conspicuously indicated; and
between both was the neutral ground. Behind the Spanish lines rose
the conical hill called the Queen of Spain's Chair. The general
aspect of the mainland from the rock is bold and rugged. Doubling
back from the galleries, we struck upwards towards the crest, reached
the Signal Station, where we indulged in 'shandy-gaff' and bread and
cheese. Thence to O'Hara's Tower, the highest point of the rock. It
was built by a former Governor, who, forgetful of the laws of
terrestrial curvature, thought he might look from the tower into-the
port of Cadiz. The tower is riven, and it may be climbed along the
edges of the crack. We got to the top of it; thence descended the
curious Mediterranean Stair--a zigzag, mostly of steps down a steeply
falling slope, amid palmetto brush, aloes, and prickly pear.
Passing over the Windmill Hill, we were joined at the 'Governor's
Cottage' by a car, and drove afterwards to the lighthouse at Europa
Point. The tower was built, I believe, by Queen Adelaide, and it
contains a fine dioptric apparatus of the first order, constructed by
Messrs. Chance, of Birmingham. At the appointed hour we were at the
Convent. During dinner the same genial traits which appeared in the
morning were still more conspicuous. The freshness of the Governor's
nature showed itself best when he spoke of his old antagonist in arms,
Mouravieff. Chivalry in war is consistent with its stern prosecution.
These two men were chivalrous, and after striking the last blow became
friends for ever. Our kind and courteous reception at Gibraltar is a
thing to be remembered with pleasure.
On December 15 we committed ourselves to the Mediterranean. The views
of Gibraltar with which we are most acquainted represent it as a huge
ridge; but its aspect, end on, both from the Spanish lines and from
the other side, is truly noble. There is a sloping bank of sand at
the back of the rock, which I was disposed to regard simply as the
_débris_ of the limestone. I wished to let myself down upon it, but had
not the time. My friend Mr. Busk, however, assures me that it is
silica, and that the same sand constitutes the adjacent neutral
ground. There are theories afloat as to its having been blown from
Sahara. The Mediterranean throughout this first day, and indeed
throughout the entire voyage to Oran, was of a less deep blue than the
Atlantic. Possibly the quantity of organisms may have modified the
colour. At night the phosphorescence was startling, breaking suddenly
out along the crests of the waves formed by the port and starboard
bows. Its strength was not uniform. Having flashed brilliantly for a
time, it would in part subside, and afterwards regain its vigour.
Several large phosphorescent masses of weird appearance also floated
past.
On the morning of the 16th we sighted the fort and lighthouse of Marsa
el Kibir, and beyond them the white walls of Oran lying in the bight
of a bay, sheltered by dominant hills. The sun was shining brightly;
during our whole voyage we had not had so fine a day. The wisdom
which had led us to choose Oran as our place of observation seemed
demonstrated. A rather excitable pilot came on board, and he guided
us in behind the Mole, which had suffered much damage the previous
year from an unexplained outburst of waves from the Mediterranean.
Both port and bow anchors were cast in deep water. With three huge
hawsers the ship's stem was made fast to three gun-pillars fixed in
the Mole; and here for a time the "Urgent" rested from her labours.
M. Janssen, who had rendered his name celebrated by his observations
of the eclipse in India in 1868, when he showed the solar flames to be
eruptions of incandescent hydrogen, was already encamped in the open
country about eight miles from Oran. On December 2 he had quitted
Paris in a balloon, with a strong young sailor as his assistant, had
descended near the mouth of the Loire, seen M. Gambetta, and received
from him encouragement and aid. On the day of our arrival his
encampment was visited by Mr. Huggins, and the kind and courteous
Engineer of the Port drove me subsequently, in his own phaeton, to the
place. It bore the best repute as regards freedom from haze and fog,
and commanded an open outlook; but it was inconvenient for us on
account of its distance from the ship. The place next in repute was
the railway station, between two and three miles distant from the
Mole. It was inspected, but, being enclosed, was abandoned for an
eminence in an adjacent garden, the property of Mr. Hinshelwood, a
Scotchman who had settled some years previously as an Esparto merchant
in Oran. [Footnote: Esparto is a kind of grass now much used in the
manufacture of paper.] He, in the most liberal manner, placed his
ground at the disposition of the party. Here the tents were pitched,
on the Saturday, by Captain Salmond and his intelligent corps of
sappers, the instruments being erected on the Monday under cover of
the tents.
Close to the railway station runs a new loopholed wall of defence,
through which the highway passes into the open country. Standing on
the highway, and looking southwards, about twenty yards to the right
is a small bastionet, intended to carry a gun or two. Its roof I
thought would form an admirable basis for my telescope, while the view
of the surrounding country was unimpeded in all directions. The
authorities kindly allowed me the use of this bastionet. Two men, one
a blue-jacket named Elliot, and the other a marine named Hill, were
placed at my disposal by Lieutenant Walton; and, thus aided, on Monday
morning I mounted my telescope. The instrument was new to me, and
some hours of discipline were spent in mastering all the details of
its manipulation.
Mr. Huggins joined me, and we visited together the Arab quarter of
Oran. The flat-roofed houses appeared very clean and white. The
street was filled with loiterers, and the thresholds were occupied by
picturesque groups. Some of the men were very fine. We saw many
straight, manly fellows who must have been six feet four in height.
They passed us with perfect indifference, evincing no anger,
suspicion, or curiosity, hardly caring in fact to glance at us as we
passed. In one instance only during my stay at Oran was I spoken to
by an Arab. He was a tall, good-humoured fellow, who came smiling up
to me, and muttered something about 'les Anglais.' The mixed
population of Oran is picturesque in the highest degree: the Jews,
rich and poor, varying in their costumes as their wealth varies; the
Arabs more picturesque still, and of all shades of complexion--the
negroes, the Spaniards, the French, all grouped together, each race
preserving its own individuality, formed a picture intensely
interesting to me.
On Tuesday, the 20th, I was early at the bastionet. The night had
been very squally. The sergeant of the sappers had taken charge of
our key, and on Tuesday morning Elliot went for it. He brought back
the intelligence that the tents had been blown down, and the
instruments overturned. Among these was a large and valuable
equatorial from the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. It seemed hardly
possible that this instrument, with its wheels and verniers and
delicate adjustments, could have escaped uninjured from such a fall.
This, however, was the case; and during the day all the overturned
instruments were restored to their places, and found to be in
practical working order. This and the following day were devoted to
incessant schooling. I had come out as a general stargazer, and not
with the intention of devoting myself to the observation of any
particular phenomenon. I wished to see the whole--the first contact,
the advance of the moon, the successive swallowing up of the solar
spots, the breaking of the last line of crescent by the lunar
mountains into Bailey's beads, the advance of the shadow through the
air, the appearance of the corona and prominences at the moment of
totality, the radiant streamer; of the corona, the internal structure
of the flames, a glance through a polariscope, a sweep round the
landscape with the naked eye, the reappearance of the soar limb
through Bailey's beads, and, finally, the retreat of the lunar shadow
through the air.