104 EFFECTS OF A HURRICANE. 



it dense volumes of cloud and vapour. Encounter- 

 ing another tempest from the west, it appeared as if 

 a violent conflict ensued. The clouds were rent by 

 incessant flashes, or rather streams, of lightning. At 

 one time they were piled up high in the sky, at 

 another they descended to the earth, filling the air 

 with a baleful darkness, more impenetrable than the 

 obscurity of midnight. Wherever the hurricane 

 passed, whole tracts of forest were shivered and 

 stripped of their leaves and branches ; and trees of 

 gigantic size, which resisted the blast, were torn up 

 by the roots and hurled to a great distance. Groves 

 were torn from the mountain-precipices, and vast 

 masses of earth and rock precipitated into the 

 valleys with terrific noise, choking the course of the 

 rivers. 



" The fearful sounds in the air and on the earth, 

 the pealing thunder, the vivid lightning, the howl- 

 ing of the wind, the crash of falling trees and rocks, 

 filled every one with affright, and many thought 

 that the end of the world was at hand. Some fled 

 to caverns for safety, for their frail houses were 

 blown down, and the air was filled with the trunks 

 and branches of trees, and even with fragments of 

 rocks, carried along by the fury of the tempest. 

 When the hurricane reached the harbour, it whirled 

 the ships round as they lay at anchor, snapped their 

 cables, and sunk three of them to the bottom with 

 all who were on board. Others were driven about, 

 dashed against each other, and tossed mere wrecks 



o / 



