The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1889-07-27

per soon restored me. The wind haul
ed around to the south, then to tht
east, and finally burst out of the north
east with violence.
/ Evidently / had made port just il
time. The security OF il now made M
feel triumphant; the storm was wei
come.
The gale gathered up the mists into
an army of clouds and hurled them
against the lofty crags about the bay
These seemed to rear their heads still
higher in the gloom, and all night long
the bowling of their storm. beaten
crests swept through the sky. / felt a
certain colnpanionship with these rock.
heads, and gloricd in their eternal
sieadfastness. Feeling il an honor to
be of their company | volunteered for
duty Oh the point, to watch the enc.
Ihy's movements. So | groped my
way in the darkness along the rocks,
often on hands and knees TO resist the
furious gusts ot wind that opposed me,
and at last reached a sheltered niche on
the verge of the point. The scene that
came into view there was indeed WOr-
thy OF the war of the elements. The
sea was all ablaze with phosphores-
cence; il even lighted the low clouds
sweeping along the horizon and fitfully
revealed the hideous features of that
death like shore. The ocean, the
inightiest power on earth, was now
reused TO its utmost fury, and that
fury was rendered still more impress
sive by al inward fire aniinating every
wave. Ont on the reef, about halt a
mile Oft, the seas leaped high in air.
like flames; coming nearer, each indi-
vidual swell bore burning crest on
its black form, and when at last il
dashed against the cliffs with deafen
ing roar, it covered them with sheets
of flame and showers OF fiery spray;
but sill the rocks shone ont against
this consuming fury with the same i'm
movable features. The quieter waters
in my little cove offered some pretty
sights; each wave that broke came in
bearing an arc of light over its black
base; other waves sweled silently up
the beach in perfect darkness, but
when the water started back The en-
tire strand flashed with a flowing
sheet of luminous foam. Then, as the
waters dashed over boulders, the spray
became shower of moonlight gems
falling on the dark rocks. The cav
erns along the foot of the cliffs were
lighted as If by magic, deep in the sea.
Ripples edged with light came kissing
the rocks with their graceful melting
touch, now playiully hiding in the
night and then pressing upon them
with inward light. But soon turned
again to the grander spectacle seaward,
where ali ocean of blazing seas, rush
ing, roaring, through the night, wash
ed the black and Jagged shores with
waves of ice-cold fire; and as the wind
lifted in luminous spray the crests OF
the waves, the night seemed to be
peopled with faint, trailing forms.
The deep was yielding up it's dead,
and the thousands who had perished
on these rocks of Labrador now fitted
past me into the darkness. Indeed,
the feeling of wonder vergcd at times
on that OF terror, so magical and
unearthly was the scene with the
majesty OF the blazing sea, the weird
and CHASTITY scenery, the bowling OF
gale-swept crags in the sky, and the
awful, tempestuoHs night that seemed
to swallow us all-sea, crags, storm,
and the phantoms from the deep. But
at other times the grandeur of the
scene overwhelmed all anxious
thoughts, and raised me to a serene
fellowship with all that is awful and
sublime. So when l returned to the
little beach and recalled my narrow
escape that day, and watched the phos-
phorescent sparks shine out of the dark
sand at the pressure of every step, like
stars under my feet, felt as one who
bad risen above all storms aud now
trod through distant firmaments.