Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 7.djvu/95

Rh deserts. As for the young lovers, this continent was to them the Promised Land.

In the meanwhile the sky was growing more and more threatening. A dark line of clouds gathered in the zenith, and a suffocating heat penetrated the atmosphere as though a July sun was shining directly above us. "Would you like me to astonish you?" said the Doctor, who had joined me on the gangway.

"Astonish me, Doctor?

"Well, then, we shall have a storm, perhaps a thunderstorm, before the day is over."

"A thunder-storm in the month of April!" I cried with surprise.

"The Great Eastern does not trouble herself about seasons," replied Dean Pitferge, shrugging his shoulders. "It is a tempest called forth expressly on her account. Look at the threatening aspect of those clouds which cover the sky; they look like antediluvian animals, and before long they will devour each other."

"I confess," said I, "the sky looks stormy, and were it three months later I should be of your opinion, but not at this time of year."

"I tell you," replied the Doctor, growing animated, "the storm will burst out before many hours are past. I feel it like a barometer. Look at those vapors rising in mass, observe that cirrus, those mares' tails which are blending together, and those thick circles which surround the horizon. Soon there will be a rapid condensing of vapor, which will consequently produce electricity. Besides, the mercury has suddenly fallen, and the prevailing wind is southwest, the only one which can brew a storm in winter."

"Your observations may be very true, Doctor," said I, not willing to yield, "but who has ever witnessed a thunder-storm at this season, and in this latitude?"

"We have proof, sir, we have proof on record. Mild winters are often marked by storms. You ought only to have lived in 1772, or even in 1824, and you would have heard the roaring of the thunder, in the first instance in February, and in the second in December. In the month of January, 1837, a thunder-bolt fell near Drammen in Norway, and did considerable mischief. Last year, in the month of February, fishing-smacks from Tréport were