254 RIVER LIFE. 



lowing each, other, and mingling their reports with a discordant 

 variety of loud and boisterous sounds. At this time the whole 

 country appeared to be encircled by a fiery zone, which, gradu- 

 ally contracting its circle by the devastation it had made, seemed 

 as if it would not converge into a point while any thing remained 

 to be destroyed. A little after four o'clock, an immense pillar 

 of smoke rose, in a vertical direction, at some distance northwest 

 of New Castle for a while, and the sky was absolutely blackened 

 by this huge cloud ; but a light northerly breeze springing up, 

 it gradually distended, and then dissipated into a variety of shape- 

 less mists. About an hour after, or probably at half past five, 

 innumerable large spires of smoke, issuing from different parts of 

 the woods, and illuminated by flames that seemed to pierce them, 

 mounted the sky. A heavy and suffocating canopy, extending to 

 the utmost verge of observation, and appearing more terrific by 

 the vivid flashes and blazes that darted irregularly through it, 

 now hung over New Castle and Douglass in threatening suspen- 

 sion, while showers of flaming brands, calcined leaves, ashes, and 

 cinders seemed to scream through the growling noise that pre- 

 vailed in the woods. About nine o'clock (P.M.), or shortly after, 

 a succession of loud and appalling roars thundered through the for- 

 ests. Peal after peal, crash after crash, announced the sentence 

 of destruction. Every succeeding shock created fresh alarm ; 

 every clap came loaded with its own destructive energy. With 

 greedy rapidity did the flames advance to the devoted scene of 

 their ministry ; nothing could impede their progress. They re- 

 moved every obstacle by the desolation they occasioned, and sev- 

 eral hundred miles of prostrate forests and smitten woods marked 

 their devastating way. 



The river, tortured into violence by the hurricane, foamed with 

 rage, and flung its boiling spray upon the land. The thunder 

 pealed along the vault of heaven — the lightning appeared to 

 rend the firmament. For a moment all was still, and a deep 



