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Show 194 HAIL- STORM OK THE LAKE. a distance, I had found to be not sufficiently conspicuous. As th6 morning was exceedingly hot and sultry, and the ascent of the cliff difficult and toilsome, we imprudently left our upper garments in the camp, and continued our labour upon the station until the middle of the afternoon; when a squall, which had been threatening all the day, burst upon us from the north- west, with great fury, accompanied with vivid lightning and heavy thunder. The sky was black as midnight, and the reverberations of the awful peals of thunder from the surrounding mountains was solemn and sublime. Before the storm came up, the boat with water had been descried to the northward, with both sails set, and I had watched her with great anxiety, as I had but little confidence in the skill of those who had her in charge, and was fearful the squall would come upon them unprepared. I bitterly reproached myself for allowing her to go without me; as, in case of her loss, which, at the time, seemed highly probable, not only would the lives of her crew be sacrificed, but we, who remained on this barren rock, with* out the means of leaving it and destitute of water, must have miserably perished. To my great relief, however, I saw, through the glass, the sails furled, the masts taken down, and the boat brought to anchor just as the gust struck her, burying every thing in mist and darkness. I thought, too, that I made out the skiff in tow, but was not certain, as the distance was too great. The storm lasted more than an hour- the wind blew a hurricane, and it hailed with great violence, covering the ground in a few minutes with hailstones as large as peas. We sheltered ourselves as well as we could behind some rocky cliffs; but, being thinly clad, we became uncomfortably cold; and, as soon as the hail ceased, we hastened, wet to the skin, to descend to our camp, glad to escape from the piercing wind which swept in furious gusts over our elevated pinnacle. The yawl, soon after, came into the bay, with the missing men on board, but without the skiff, which, though recovered, had broken adrift in the gale, parting an inch cable, doubled, by which she had been fastened. It appeared, as we had hoped, that those in the yawl had seen the skiff yesterday in the storm, and had succeeded in picking her up. The men in her were without their coats, exposed to the peltings of the hail- storm, sea- sick, almost frozen, and nearly scared to death. Had they not been rescued, they must have suffered terribly, if indeed they had not perished, as they had nothing to eat; their boat at the time was half- full |
