To appreciate the hideous vastness of the ocean one must see it when it sleeps.
The great sky uprose from this silent sea without a cloud.

The stars hung low in its expanse, burning in a violent mist of lower ether.

The heavens were emptied of sound, and each dip of the oars was re-echoed in space by a succession of subtle harmonies.

As the blades struck the dark water, it flashed fire, and the tracks of the boats resembled two sea-snakes writhing with silent undulations through a lake of quicksilver.
It had been a sort of race hitherto, and the rowers, with set teeth and compressed lips, had pulled stroke for stroke.

At last the foremost boat came to a sudden pause.