THE SOUFRIERE-BIRD. 201 



furnace grew louder and increased to the howling of 

 the hurricane, and seemed to approach the very crust 

 of earth upon which I lay ; the thin shell vibrated, 

 cracked, lire leaped forth, and, amid the most terrific 

 explosions, I descended — to the bottom of my cave. 



Confused and astonished, I gathered my blanket 

 about me, and looked around. The hammock was 

 oscillating gently, small stones and particles of loos- 

 ened earth were falling from above in a gentle shower, 

 and Toby was snoring earnestly. Returning to my 

 hammock, I lay there cogitating, with the rain pat- 

 tering on my canvas roof, and watched Toby as he 

 emitted those nasal blasts. An idea struck me — 

 ideas often strike me. Why could not this wasted 

 power be utilized? Snoring causes vibration ; vibra- 

 tion communicated causes motion ; motion was what 

 I wanted to swing my hammock, to rock me to sleep. 

 Instantly I had conceived a device for utilizing this 

 force ; and such was my faith in its merits, that, if 

 I had been on American instead of English soil, I 

 should have hastened at once to get the invention pro- 

 tected by patent. This boon to people who sleep in 

 couples, this invention that will do away with mid- 

 night rising to rock the cradle, is not yet patented ; 

 hence it would not be policy in me to give the details 

 of its construction to the world. 



The morning of the fourth day dawned dimly. 

 Toby prepared coffee, and I took my gun and game- 

 basket and went down the mountain a short way, 

 where I had heard the song of the bird the day be- 

 fore. It was a sort of shoulder in the hill, where a 

 curve in the crater-brim and a hollow in the hill gave 

 shelter from the vapor-charged wind from the "wind- 



