The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1869-04-11
VICTOR HUso's NEW NOVEL.

So - -
The following extract from the new novel by
Victor Hugo, now In course Of publication from
the press Of d. Appleton & Co., New York, is Of
interest Is vivid description of q natural scene,
and also % new evidence of the power Of the
great author In painting word pictures:
fHH OUTER LAWS. r
The snow storm Is one Of the unknown quaint
ties Of the sea. 1t is the most obscure Of ell me.
teors, obscure in every sense of the word, mix.
ture of fog and tempest, o phenomenon not yet
we'll explained. This uncertainty causes many
disasters.
Men try TO explain everything BY the wind and
the current. Now, there is in the air a force
which is not wind, and in the water force which
is not current. This force, the same In the air as
In the water. Is eff1uyium. The air and the water
are two masses of LIQUID, nearly identical, and
changing mutually into each other by condenss-
ton and dilation; SO much SO that breathing Is q
species of drinking; the efluvium alone is fluid.
The wind and the current are only impulses, the
efiuvium ia steady stream. The wind is
visible in its clouds, the current In its foam; the
efiuvium Is invisible. Yet from time to time 1t
says, There am" and Its way of saying so is q
thunderclsp. tfr
The snow storm presents problem analogous
to that Of the dry fog. II an explanation Of the
Spaniard's cduind, and the Ethiopian's quobdr,
be possible. this explanation will certainly be
made by attentive observation Of the magnetic
effiuvium.
without the efluvium, q host of facts remain
enigmatic. The altered velocity OF the wind,
Changing in q storm from three feet to sso feet i
srcUnd, may possibly cause the alteration Of the
waves, rising from three inches in calm to
thirty six feet in q stormy sea the horizontal.
ness OF the blasts, even In squell, may possibly
make rs understand how a wave thirty feet
high can be 1909 feet long; but why the waves
of the Pacific are four times higher near Amer.
lea than near Asia, that is TO say. higher at the
UT.~s - l. a a
the Atlantic-wby, under the equator, it is the
middle of the sea which Is highest-why these
ocean swells change their pace-this Is what
the magnetic effiuvIum, combined with the rota-
ton of the earth and the attraction Of the heav.
emily bodies, can alone explain.
Does 1t not require this mysterious compiled.
ton to understand an oscillation Of the wind,
going. for instance, by the west, from south
east TO northeast, then returning abruptly by
the same great round, from northeast to south.
east, so as to make, in thirty six hours, the pro-
digious circuit of FIVE hundred and sixty degrees,
which was the course run over by the snow
storm of March II, 1867,
The storm-waves of Australia reach eighty
feet in height !; Australia is near the pole. A
tempest IN our attitudes is due less to the dis
turbance Of the winds, than to continuous cleo.
trio submarine discharges; 10 1866 the trans-At-
lantic cable was regularly impeded IN its work.
ing two hours out OF the twenty-four, from
noon TO P. NJ, by sort Of Intermittent fever.
Certain compositions and decompostions OF
forces cause phenomena, and thrust themselves
on the sailors calculations, under pain Of ship
wreck.
The day when navigation, now q routine, shall
become . mathematical science; the day. for
instance, when men will try 10 find out Why, In
our climate, hot winds sometimes come from the
north. and cold ones from the south the day when
we shall understand that the diminutions of TEN.
perature are proportional to the depths of the
sea; the day when We shall have before our
minds the fact that the globe is q great magnet,
polarized in space, having two axes. one of rota-
ton, one OF efiiuvium, cutting each other at the
center Of the earth, and that the magnetic poles
reyolve around the geographic; when those who
risk their lives shall choose to risk them scentif
caly; when the unstable medium of navigation
shall have been studied; when every captain shall
will many catastrophes be avoided. The sea Is
as much magnetic IS watery; an ocean Of forces
floats unknown In the ocean Of currents down
stream, we may say. To see IN the ocean only a
mass Of water Is not TO see ii at all the ocean is
coming and going OF fluid, as much as q fiux and
refiux of liquid, affected even more by attraction
than hurricanes. Molecular adhesion (shown by
capillary attraction, among other phenomena
share, IN the ocean, the grandeur of the oceans
volume, and the waves of effiuvium sometimes
assist sometimes oppose, the waves of the air and
the water. He who knows not the electric laws,
knows not the hydraulic, for they interpenetrate.
True, no study is more difficult or more doubtful;
1t borders on imposture, as astronomy borders on
astrology. But without it there is no real naygs-
ton.
This said, let Us pass on.
The snow storm is one of the most dangerous
compounds Of the sea. 1t is above all magnetic.
The pole produces it. as it produces the aurora
borealis, inspiring the fog Of the one and the
CLEAN Of the other; the effluvium is perceptible
In the snowflake as well as in the striated
fame.
shspeless. IN all sorts of sweIlings, the fog
gathered at once upon every point of the horizon.
as though invisible mcuths were occupied in puff.
ing up the leather bags of the tempest. The form
Of the cloud became threatening.
The blue cloud held all the lower part Of the
as in the East. IL worked up against the gale.
These contradictions belong to the Law of winds.
The sea, which, a moment before, had scales,
now had skin. Such is this dragon. It was no
longer the crocodile; it was the boa. This skin
livid and foul. appeared thick, and wrinkled It,
self heavily. At the surface, bubbles of spume,
isolated and resembling pustules, rounded them.
selves, then burst. The scum was like leprosy.
The somber chsstisemens of the waters. eter.
naly tormented, was about to begin. A lament
ing voice went up out Of all this waste. Pre-.
paratives, doleful and confused, were being
made In immensely. The doctor studied what
was under his eye, and lost not one OF its de-
tails. Otherwise, there was nothing of contem.
plation in bis look. One does not contemplate
hell. /
A vast commotion, still half latent, though |
plain enough in the troubled distance, sccentu-
ated and aggravated more and more the wind,
the msts, the surgings. Nothing is 30 logical as
the ocean, nothing more absurd. This incongruity
with itself is inherent in its sovereignty and Is
one Of the elements Of Its amplitude. The wave |
10, without ceasing, for and against. 1t coils |
Itself up only to unceil itsef. One of its swashes
attacks, another delivers. No sight like that of |
the pillows. How paint those slternsted and |
scarcely actual hollows and reliefs those Valleys
those hummocks, those heavings Of the breast, |
those rough outlinesi How express the thickets |
Of foam, made up OF mountain and of dream |
The indescribable is there, everywhere, in the |
racking to pieces in the frowning, in the restless
ness, in the perpetual contradiction, in the lights
md shadows, in the grading of the clouds, 10 the
Taulted key stones forever displaced In the dsin-
egration without gap and without fracture, and |
u the funereal din that is made by all this frenzy.
The wind came out due north. II was 50 favor |
.ble In its strength, and 80 fair for getting away
rom England, that the master Of the Matutins /
lecided to crowd her with canvas. The erk |
,roke away In the foam as at q gallop, all sails \
pread, wind sstern, bounded from wave to wave |
Nth rage and glee. The fugitives, enraptured,
aughed.
England became oblitersted; the fugitives had |
10 longer anything around them but the sea.
All at once the night was terrible.
Thora VA M ma Ia