STORM IN THE PYRENEES. 63 



their compliments by bending their bodies as we did ; after which they 

 vanished. I particularly noticed that this phenomenon was frequently 

 very weak and faint, but sometimes strong and well defined. The time 

 to ascend the Brocken is in the month of September, that being the only 

 month in the year when the fogs and steams of this northern clime will 

 allow an uninterrupted view. It is not advisable to attempt an ascent 

 to the Hartz without a guide, as these mountains abound with 

 dangerous marshes. 



EFFECTS OF A DREADFUL STORM IN THE PYRENEES. 



THE storm came on towards the end of spring, 1836, and though it 

 raged with unwonted violence, it was for the first three or four days almost 

 disregarded. The peasantry believing that a limited period was assigned 

 for this warring of the elements, never thought of the sufferings to which 

 they would be subjected, should the period be unusually lengthened. 

 Accordingly they adopted no precautionary measures, they collected no 

 provisions; they did not conceive it necessary to withdraw the shepherds 

 and their flocks from the mountains, and they felt no uneasiness as to 

 their safety. The fourth day passed, then a week, and still no abatement 

 in the violence of the storm. " It seemed," says an eye witness, " as if 

 the mountains which surround our valley were fighting against each 

 other, and their weapons, the thunders and the lightnings. The incessant 

 peals, hurled from one summit to another, rolled back again with more 

 stunning crashings, the lightning played around our cottages, and during 

 the darkness of the nights illuminated the mountain tops, whose fantastic 

 looking peaks every instant seemed shrouded in a blaze of light, while the 

 rain descending in torrents, which no cottage roof could resist, and which 

 threatened to sweep our dwellings from their foundations, and wash us into 

 the river, whose swollen waters, rising far above the limits of their highest 

 floods, were already robbing us of our property . Our thoughts were first 

 directed to the dangers of our shepherds and their flocks, but to whom 

 it was impossible to render assistance; the strongest man amongst us 

 could not have braved the hurricane for an hour, so we were obliged to 

 leave them to their fate ! Weeks succeeded weeks, and still the terrible 

 scene was the same. There was no abatement in the thunderings, no 

 interval in the lightnings, no cessations in the rains; vvj gave ourselves 



