About ten o'clock in the morning
By degrees , they appear to swell out , break , and gain in number what they lose in grandeur ; their heaviness is so great that they are unable to lift themselves from the horizon ; but under the influence of the upper currents of air , they are gradually broken up , become much darker , and then present the appearance of one single layer of a formidable character ; now and then a lighter cloud , still lit up from above , rebounds upon this grey carpet , and is lost in the opaque mass . There can be no doubt that the entire atmosphere is saturated with electric fluid ; I am myself wholly impregnated ; my hairs literally stand on end as if under the influence of a galvanic battery . If one of my companions ventured to touch me , I think he would receive rather a violent and unpleasant shock . About ten o'clock in the morning , the symptoms of the storm became more thorough and decisive ; the wind appeared to soften down as if to take breath for a renewed attack ; the vast funereal pall above us looked like a huge bag -- like the cave of AEolus , in which the storm was collecting its forces for the attack . I tried all I could not to believe in the menacing signs of the sky , and yet I could not avoid saying , as it were involuntarily : `` I believe we are going to have bad weather . '' The Professor made me no answer . He was in a horrible , in a detestable humor -- to see the ocean stretching interminably before his eyes .