160 STUDIES OF NATURE 



me, as an expert wrestler would fling an assail- 

 ant, with one throw flat upon the ground. 

 After that we become still more cautious, not 

 knowing what goblin pranks may be played 

 with us ; but more than once we are seized, as 

 if by demoniacal possession, shaken in every 

 limb, and blown to the earth. At length we 

 curl ourselves up behind a great stone in order 

 to get breath enough to speak to each other, 

 and also that we may watch the wild hurly- 

 burly of the elements which is going on before 

 us. We look down now into the great hollow 

 under Goatfell, whose summit is directly south- 

 west. The wind is driving up from the sea vast 

 masses of cloud and vapour; they strike the 

 rampart of Goatfell, and then, torn into a 

 hundred shreds by their contact with the rocks, 

 come streaming round at inconceivable speed as 

 though they were flying from their tormentor 

 like the * scourged souls ' in Malebolge, the 

 eighth circle of the ' Inferno,' that place 



