200 FIFTEEN DAYS ON THE DANUBE. 
Meanwhile the rain had stopped, the clouds had broken up, 
and scorching sunbeams, the precursors of an approaching 
storm, were shining down on forests dripping with the long con- 
tinued rain. Our clothes, which were quite soaked through, 
now slowly dried; and, tired with our many hours of shooting, 
we plodded on through the woods to the carts, for it seemed 
useless to return to the colony, which we had so thoroughly 
ransacked, and the inhabitants of which had now become so 
restless. 
At the carts I found my brother-in-law, who had brought 
back a fine bag of two magnificent Imperial Hagles from the 
other part of the forest; and, after taking a hasty lunch of 
bread, we got into the traps and drove to the Saéer wood, 
following the road by which we had come in the morning as 
far as the outer houses of Kovil. 
In the avenues of acacias already mentioned we found 
Crows, Magpies, Kestrels, Larks, and numbers of Yellow 
Hammers and Tree-Sparrows ; Turtle-Doves, too, were sitting 
about the fields, and some of them flew past so close that I 
sasily brought down a couple right and left from the cart. 
Towards the afternoon the sun was still mere scorching ; 
heavy storm-clouds towered up in all directions, and distant 
thunder announced the approach of bad weather, and as we 
were driving past Kovil the first large drops of rain fell, and 
three heavy storms burst above us with a terrific noise. 
Seldom have I seen such a tempest, for the violent gusts 
of wind bent the trees, thunderclap followed thunderclap, 
lightning flashed vividly in all directions, and soon came 
a torrent of rain like a waterspout. We were wet to the skin 
again in a few minutes, and though this involuntary bath was 
by no means pleasant, we nevertheless enjoyed the magnifi- 
cent spectacle of the storm as it passed away over the vast 
plains in low layers of cloud. 
Despite the unfavourable weather, we held on our way, and, 
