A HEAVY SQUALL. 125 



additional motive to my previous determination to 

 set the question at rest by personal examination, 

 and in the interim, to look immediately before sun- 

 rise (when the atmosphere within the tropics is 

 always clear) for the very sight I should have been 

 most disappointed to have beheld. During the 

 afternoon I shot over the island, and enjoyed some 

 very fair sport ; especially with the pheasant- 

 cuckoo,* and quail, large and small, which were 

 numerous : several birds not unlike the so-called 

 crow of the Swan River colonists were seen. We 

 found no fresh water, but in addition to the 

 abundance of game, the presence of the natives, 

 proves the island to be not wholly destitute of this 

 first requisite of life. The thermometer at 3 p.m., 

 was 100 in the shade, while the unnatural calm 

 that reigned around gave the experienced seaman 

 plain warning of some disturbance at hand. Just 

 before sunset these anxious anticipations proved 

 correct : a mass of broad edged white clouds rose 

 rapidly in the east, and spread over the till then 

 unbroken blue of the vast vault above ; among or 

 rather behind the interstices of these clouds, the 

 lightning quivered and flashed fearfully and fitfully, 

 gleaming with a terrible distinctness in the fading 

 light of expiring day ! Anon, darker and more 

 ominous clouds succeeded to the first, and quickly 

 uniting seemed to span all heaven with a frowning 

 arch, that came rapidly onwards upon the wings of 

 * Centropus Phasianellus. — Gould. 



