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Show 194 HAIL- STORM ON THB LAKE. . a distance, I had found to be not sufficiently conspicuous. As the morning was exceedingly hot and siiltry, and the aeeent of the cliff difficult and toilsome, we imprudently leftxour upper garments ih the camp, and continued our labour upon? the station until the niiddle of the afternoon; when: a squall, whieh had b^ en- threatening all the day, burst upon us from the north- west, with great fory, accompanied with vivid lightning and heavy thunder. The sky was black as midnight, and the reverberation* of the awful/ peals w of thunder from the surrounding mountains was solemn and sub* lime. Before the storm came up, the boat with water " haid been descried to the. northward, with both sails set, and I had watched her witft great anxiety, as I had but little confidence . in' five skill of those who had her in charge, ami was fearful the squall would come upon them unprepared. X 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 rook, without 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 ? iatits tak$ n down, and the boat brought to anchor just as the gust struck her, burying every thing in mist 1 and/ darkness. I thought, too, that I'made out the skiff in tow,. but was not certain, as die distance was . too great. - The storm lasted more thaii an hour- the wind blew a hurricane, and it hailed with great violence, covering the . ground in a fewvmiputes with hailstones, as large as * p$ as. We. sheltered ourselves as weU as we could behind some rocky cliffs; but, being thinly clad, w& 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 m furious gusts over our elevated, ' . pinnacle. The yawl, soon after, came into the bay, with the missing inen 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 suc- . ceeded. in picking her up. The men in her were without their coats, exposed ta 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, aa they had npthing to eat; their bpat at the time w& S' half- full |
