168 THE EASTEEN HUNTERS. 



sweep of wind ; and, a few hundred yards distant, 

 the trees could be seen bending low before the full 

 fury of the blast. From tree to tree, its progress could 

 be traced as each became lost in the murky atmo- 

 sphere. Ere long, it rushed up to the little camp, 

 laden with the heat of a furnace, and accompanied 

 by dense clouds of dust and sand and minute par- 

 ticles of substances, which struck like pins against 

 the unprotected face. It raged through the stub- 

 born giant tree, with a violence which threatened to 

 dismember it, for its grasp of the earth, both by its 

 own massive roots, and those of its parasite shoots, 

 rendered entire destruction unlikely. All around 

 was quickly enveloped. Things a few yards distant 

 could not be discerned, and the sun was so 

 obscured as to render it difficult to decipher the 

 characters of fair sized print. The first fierce gust 

 settled into a steady hurricane, gradually becoming 

 cooler as it rather increased than diminished in 

 strength. A few heavy drops of rain fell, and the 

 air became delightfully chill ; and then in a few 

 minutes the rolling dust gave place to a falling 

 sheet of water, which pelted against all obstructions 

 with tremendous violence. 



The most vivid flashes of lightning followed each 

 other in rapid succession, and were almost contem- 

 poraneous with sharp cracks of deafening thunder, 



