A BUSH-FIKE. 341 



veller might imagine that he was traversing a forest of char- 

 coal, as the steins stand upright for some time, and present a 

 most lugubrious appearance. 



A bush-fire is a very terrific, and often a very dangerous 

 event. I remember on one occasion leaving Bungingyong, 

 where I had been on duty, to return to Ballarat on horseback 

 (eight miles through the forest), and perceived by thick 

 smoke in the distance that the trees must be on fire some- 

 where in the direction in which my road lay a narrow open 

 strip cut from the surrounding wood as far as this place by 

 the Government surveyor. Having proceeded several miles, 

 I found myself suddenly in the midst of it, the wind, being in 

 a contrary direction, not having warned me of its vicinity. 

 The trees on each side of the narrow road, and for many 

 hundred yards behind, were encircled with spiral flames, that 

 crept serpent-like through their various sinuosities, or burst 

 out into broad flame when they encountered any more easily 

 combustible matter. The branches crackled and hissed, the 

 flames roared with a sound like distant thunder, and the air 

 was darkened with volumes of smoke, which, as it was driven 

 by the wind in the same direction in which I was riding, I 

 did not feel much of. After, however, having advanced some 

 hundred yards into this " Inferno," I did not feel exactly com- 

 fortable, particularly as I had been struck once or twice by 

 fragments of burning branches, and was about to retrace my 

 steps, when I distinguished the sound of a horse's gallop 

 behind me, and presently the postman, with the mail-bags 

 from Geelong, overtook me. He told me our only chance 

 was to ride on at the top of our speed, as if we turned back 

 we risked being suffocated by the smoke. Accordingly, 

 holding our breath, and stooping over our saddle-bows, we 

 L mt spurs to our horses, who were quite as much frightened as 

 ourselves, and after about a mile's gallop through the blazing 

 avenue found ourselves in a more open part of the forest 



