BOOK THE SECOND.

_THE HOOKER AT SEA_.




CHAPTER I.

SUPERHUMAN LAWS.


The snowstorm is one of the mysteries of the ocean. It is the most
obscure of things meteorological--obscure in every sense of the word. It
is a mixture of fog and storm; and even in our days we cannot well
account for the phenomenon. Hence many disasters.

We try to explain all things by the action of wind and wave; yet in the
air there is a force which is not the wind, and in the waters a force
which is not the wave. That force, both in the air and in the water, is
effluvium. Air and water are two nearly identical liquid masses,
entering into the composition of each other by condensation and
dilatation, so that to breathe is to drink. Effluvium alone is fluid.
The wind and the wave are only impulses; effluvium is a current. The
wind is visible in clouds, the wave is visible in foam; effluvium is
invisible. From time to time, however, it says, "I am here." Its "I am
here" is a clap of thunder.