The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1900-02-02

the boats head inshore, ran close to the
rocks, and then slid along (more slowly for
being hard by the bank Just beyond what
l thought to be the loom Of the land. BY
this l had gotten into the swing Of the stu
alton and had less fear Of interruption
than of missing the Phantom. Twould be
an easy matter to slip by her, and even could
! once mark the height of COrlears Hook,
with its alarm beacon always ready for the
touch of a torch, l would then be an un-
usual sailor if l could make a straight
course for the schooner, though she still lay
at her old anchorage. In the darkness both
beacon and heights would be beyond
vision, and l was approaching what was
very like real worry when my fears were re-
heved and our present situation indicated
by the sound of eight bells struck in true
m6n-o'-wars- mans style that came floating
over the river about off our larboard beam.
/ gave a fair guess that the measured beats
came from the Bellerophon striking the
Incur of midnight, that ship being the only
vessel of size which had been anchored
above the Jersey prison hulk to dispute a
possible passage of the Sound river from
above. / was sure of this when, after in
tontly listening, heard no other striking,
for had the fleet been near there would
have been a harmony of bells in quick sue
cession.
Ny mind being thus relieved, I turned
the tubs head into the stream again, and for
awhile we hoated rapidly and silently along,
boat with three figures that might have
been carved from stone, so rigid were our at
titudes of watchfulness and expectancy.
l fear / am none too strong a believer in
ho Il of fol
l have seemed to see its workings in my own
behalf, as instanced in the breeze that
saved me from the knife of the negro; but
if ever the Almighty carried three human
beings in the hollow of His hand, and point
ed out the way of deliverance from press
ing danger, He did it this night, and that
without the working of a miracle. Sud
denly, and without the Intervention of a
breeze, we were floating in clear water. Be
fore us rose a white, impenetrable cloud of
dull luminosity, while behind us lay the
moist veil from which we had just drifted.
Its height was clearly marked, and showed
the mist extended not more than 20
feet above the rivers surface. We had
struck a chasm in the fog, and once when
on the high seas had marked the like, then,
as now, there being no wind to mix or drive
the vapOr.
The rift was but a few hundred feet
| across, though it apparently extended from
shore to shore, like the waters rolled back
for the passage of the children of Israel.
Not a boat was in sight. On either hand
the water lay black and fat, only SHIN
mered here and there by the light of the
stars that shone clearly overhead. This
incident must not be considered forced.
The writer saw these exact conditions while
on a ferry boat from New York to Brook
lyn during a foggy night in the summer of
1895. The phenomenon is probably due to a
warm and comparatively dry streak of slow
| ly moving air, and lasts but few moments. ]
It was a wonderful, an awe-inspiring
sight, but the quick exclamation | involun-
tar:ly made-the first sound from the boat
since it left Turtle bay-was followed by
almost a shout as 1 marked height of head
land from the top of which, family outlined
against the pale sky, stood up the beacon.
| II was Corlears Hook past doubt, known
lot alone by It's rounded outline, but by
! the unused alarm signal which Clinton had
caused to be placed there to warn the feet
in case of a sudden attack by the Ameri-
cans. A watch was always kept from this