THE SOUFRIERE-BIRD. 201 



furnace grew louder and increased to the howling of 

 the hurricane, and seemed to approach the very crust 

 of earth upon which I lay ; the thin shell vibrated, 

 cracked, fire leaped forth, and, amid the most terrific 

 explosions, I descended to the bottom of my cave. 



Confused and astonished, I gathered my blanket 

 about me, and looked around. The hammock was 

 oscillating gently, small stones and particles of loos- 

 ened earth were falling from above in a gentle shower, 

 and Toby was snoring earnestly. Returning to my 

 hammock, I lay there cogitating, with the rain pat- 

 tering on my canvas roof, and watched Toby as he 

 emitted those nasal blasts. An idea struck me 

 ideas often strike me. Why could not this wasted 

 power be utilized? Snoring causes vibration ; vibra- 

 tion communicated causes motion ; motion was what 

 I wanted to swing my hammock, to rock me to sleep. 

 Instantly I had conceived a device for utilizing this 

 force ; and such was my faith in its merits, that, if 

 I had been on American instead of English soil, I 

 should have hastened at once to get the invention pro- 

 tected by patent. This boon to people who sleep in 

 couples, this invention that will do away with mid- 

 night rising to rock the cradle, is not yet patented; 

 hence it would not be policy in me to give the details 

 of its construction to the world. 



The morning of the fourth day dawned dimly. 

 Toby prepared coffee, and I took my gun and game- 

 basket and went down the mountain a short way, 

 where I had heard the song of the bird the day be- 

 fore. It was a sort of shoulder in the hill, where a 

 curve in the crater-brim and a hollow in the hill gave 

 shelter from the vapor-charged wind from the "wind- 



