28 THE NORTH-AVEST PASSAGE BY LAND. 



the course of an hour or two ominous clouds began to 

 roll up from the west, and the darkness increased. 

 We went on, however, hoping that there would be 

 no storm. But before long, suddenly, as it seemed to 

 us, the darkness became complete ; then, without pre- 

 vious warning, a dazzHng flash of lightning lit up for 

 a moment the wild scene around us, and almost instan- 

 taneously a tremendous clap of thunder, an explosion 

 like the bursting of a magazine, caused us to stop 

 paddling, and sit silent and appalled. A fierce blast of 

 Avind swept over the river, snapping great trees like 

 twigs on every side ; the rain poured down in floods, 

 and soaked us through and through; flash followed 

 flash in quick succession, with its accompanying roar of 

 thunder ; whilst at intervals between, a dim, flickering 

 light, faint and blue, like the flame of a spirit lamp, 

 or the " Will-o'-the-wisp," hovered over the surface 

 of the water, but failed to light up the dense blackness 

 of the night. With this came an ominous hissing, 

 like the blast of a steam pipe, varying with the wind, 

 now sounding near as the flame approached, now more 

 distant as it wandered away. 



We were in the very focus of the storm ; the whole 

 air was charged with electricity, and the changing 

 currents of the electric fluid, or the shifting winds, 

 lifted and played with our hair in passing. The smell 

 of ozone was so pungent that it fairly made us snort 

 again, and forced itself on our notice amongst the 

 other more fearful phenomena of the storm. We 

 made an attempt to land at once, but the darkness 

 was so intense that we could not see to avoid the 



