COLLECTIONS ENDANGERED. 265 



torrent with terrific roar and speed. Dull echoes 

 high up in the mountains warned us of its approach, 

 and in a few minutes the deep bed of our ravine was 

 inundated with a turbid, coffee-coloured stream, 

 carrying with it rocks and heaps of smaller frag- 

 ments, while it dashed with such violence against the 

 sides that the very ground trembled as though with 

 the shock of an earthquake. Above the roar of the 

 waters we could hear the clash of great boulders as 

 they met in their headlong course. From the loose 

 banks and from the upper parts of the defile whole 

 masses of smaller stones were detached by the force 

 of the current and thrown up on either side of the 

 channel, whilst trees were torn up by their roots and 

 rent into splinters. 



In the meanwhile the rain continued with undi- 

 minished violence, and the torrent kept ever swelling. 

 The deep bed of the ravine was soon choked Avith 

 stones, mud, and fallen timber, which forced the water 

 out of its channel on to higher ground. Barely 

 twenty feet from our tent rushed the torrent, destroy- 

 ing everything in its course. Another minute, 

 another foot of water, and our collections, the fruit of 

 our expedition, were irrevocably gone ! The flood 

 had been so sudden that we had not a chance of 

 rescuing them ; all we could have done would have 

 been to save our own lives by climbing on the 

 nearest rocks. The disaster was so unexpected, the 

 ruin so imminent, that a feeling of apathy took pos- 

 session of me, and although face to face with so 

 terrible a misfortune I could not realise it. 



