PAST WANDERINGS. 83 



there is a simmering down, gradual at first, but 

 rapidly increasing in velocity, that is far from worthy 



I the beginning. 

 Soon the vortex of the storm moved from over 

 only changing its venue by slow degrees, till 

 some space severed us ; when, as if ashamed of its 

 turbulence, with ever-increasing rapidity of stride, 

 with redoubled energy, it hurried from our locality. 

 Still for an hour or more I heard the storm in the 

 distance, away over the hills that lay in our front ; 

 and I fear I rejoiced as I thought they were feeling 

 its violence, for had not they derided us with their 

 echoing, when we, unsheltered, were enduring its 

 giant force ? 



Soon after, the moon came out, unclouded and 

 brilliant, gazing down upon us with her serene, com- 

 forting face, as if she desired to assure us that we 

 were not forgotten, and that her subdued, enchanting 

 light was lovingly tendered us as an offering of 

 peace, sympathy, and goodwill, for the manifold 

 dangers and discomforts we had suffered from her 

 rash and violent neighbours aloft. 



In my numerous wanderings, whether they have 

 been where cyclones devastate the ocean, or hurri- 

 canes prostrate the forest, or typhoons strew the 

 seas with wreckage and mangled human remains, I 

 never remember the warring of the elements to be 

 so destructive and awe-inspiring, as upon these 

 table-lands of South Africa. To admire their sub- 



