808 STORMY PETREL.
the habitual current of its life, neara the land, and skirts and skims
along the weather-worn cliffs of the true 'Land's-End.' Wild is the
scene on many a 'winter's evening,' each storm different from every
other that has gone before it, and yet one and all alike: here are
low dense clouds laden with the coming gale, and there lurid skies
pregnant with tempestuous blasts; to seaward an endless desert of
waters; towards the shore, and brooding over the watery waste, spray,
foam, and air, mingled as in one, and over all the blackness of approaching
night. There is a brief lull, as if the tempest were taking
breath, and girding up its strength for a stronger effort, and a frightful
stillness prevails for a short space, the sky scowls and blackens more
angrily, and low clouds whirl and wheel about in uncertain eddies,
all betokening a savage burst of the outpoured fury of the elements;
hut while other sea-birds scuttle off to seek shelter, if any may be
found, the wee Petrel still stays, .and awaits the utmost violence of
the storm.
In the ofling there rises up the weather-beaten hull of some doomed
ship 'lean, rent, and beggared,'which in vain struggles and strains to
keep off the fatal lee-shore. She drifts nearer and nearer; you would
see at once that her hour has come, and that no human power can save
her. Now the darkness lowers still deeper, the moiunful sighings of
the air tell of the awaking of the winds from their snatched and fitful
slumber, and warn that they will soon be sweeping on again with
redoubled force, like a troop of gaunt and famished wolves greedy of
their certain prey. The black hull looms larger and larger as the
tempest-tossed vessel rises on the high wild seas outside, and at last
the only barriers between her and the rocky thunder-splitten cliffs,
half-wav up which the billows are breaking, and recoiling again in
boiling surf, arc the sunken rocks, 'over which stupendous breakers,
lashed into fury by the angry gusts, run riot, mingling the hissing of
their seething waves with the furious ravings of the blast.*
I t is as nature has foretold, and the signs of the vast power of the
air. which she has ushered in with such and so many sublime portents,
are quickly fulfilled. The sky above assumes a fierce and fiery
appearance, and to windward a huge bank of black cloud rises up and
up from the distance, and, as it comes on nearer and nearer, the 'mighty
and strong wind,' in the language of Scripture, is driven, as it were
out of its dark depths to carry all irresistibly before it. With every
fresh burst of the hurtling tempest a harsh screaming sound, as the
howl of a legion of evil spirits let loose and borne on its ominous
wings, warns of the mischief too late, the cries of the uncaged wind
gather strength and wax louder and louder, as if never to be calmed
again. Now, for an instant, the vivid lightning lightens up tin1 scene,
aud reveals the darkness around, above, and below, to leave all still
more awful than before, and following it, ' Heaven's artillery,* the
thunder-clap, rolls over and echoes away among the clouds, peal upon
peal and crash upon crash. Now the gleam has glented by, and, last,
night comes on with its gloomy grandeur, and the blackness of the
black depth below is taken into the blackness that conies down upon
it—all is black. The sen closes over the fated ship, the time of
mourning has come, and the wail of the way-worn Petrel is the dirge
for those who have perished with her on the Mono and rockv shore.'
Put He who ' r i d c t h upon the wings of the w i n d , ' ' w h o stilleth the
raging of the sea and the noise of his waves,' ' the LOUD who sitteth
on high,—is mightier.' He says unto the sea, 'Peace! be still:' ' He
speaks the word,' and 'ther e is a great calm.'
So yet once more in milder climates, leaving the dreariness of high
northern latitudes for the glory of the serene night of the south, and
the ceaseless breaking of the sea on an iron-bound coast for its soft
meaning while gently laving the golden sand of a low shore, ' o n fine
calm evenings, after the smooth surface of the deep has put off the
fiery glow imparted by the setting sun, and begins to assume the dull
leaden tint of night, then the little Petrel may be seen scouring along
upon the face of the sea; now he darts past the fisher's boat as it is
rowing along upon its homeward course; is seen for a moment as he
flits among the lagging oars, and instantly disappears among the increasing
gloom of approaching night. His motions are so rapid, his appearance
so sudden, and he looks so extremely diminutive, that it is only a quick
eye that will detect his approach at all.'
Thus the evening wears away, and soon the bright and glowing
tints upon the distant hill tops shade into the gathering darkness;
'now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight;' aud the fanciful
outlines of the far-off clouds, gilded for a brief space longer with a
gorgeous light given back from the ebbing glory of the setting sun,
' t oo bright to last,' melt and merge in like manner into the subdued
hues that foreshadow the coming dusk, and then again, in her turn,
the shining moon enlivens the face of the deep, and a shimmering
path along the rippling eddies of the tide, the true pattern of the
' F i e l d of the cloth of gold,' hedged off' by the darkened waters on
cither side, shews the sombre figure of the Petrel as it flits across.
Such are the scenes in which the Stormy Petrel acts its part.
These birds rise with difficulty from the ground, owing to the
great length of their wings, and l u n along sonic distance belere
TOL. vi. 2 E