A TERRIFIC TORNADO. 107 



thunderstorms, accompanied by big hailstones and a hurri- 

 cane of wind, which are not uncommon at this season in these 

 mountains. The most terrific storm of this description I ever 

 experienced came on suddenly one afternoon, when I was out 

 after gooral on one of the middle ranges. Its approach was 

 heralded by a sullen and gradually increasing roar, until it 

 broke on the place where my village guide and I sat cowering 

 behind a rock to avoid its fury. The hail fell like bullets, and 

 the torrents of rain that succeeded it seemed to pour down in 

 sheets. The fierce gusts of wind were so strong, that had we 

 not been in some degree sheltered, I verily believe we might 

 have been blown down the steep hillside we were on. Vivid 

 flashes of lightning came in such rapid succession as to be 

 almost a continual blaze, and were accompanied by one in- 

 cessant rising and falling roll of deafening thunder. The 

 latter, together with the howling of the wind through the 

 trees, the creaking of bending boughs, the hissing of falling 

 hail, and the roaring of water rushing down the steep gullies 

 all combined to create a truly appalling din, such as none but 

 those who have witnessed a storm of the kind can conceive. 

 N' -xi morning I came across numbers of large pine-trees that, 

 had been uprooted and felled, whilst others were snapped in 

 two, like dry twigs, by this furious tornado, which lasted only 

 some twenty minutes, and yet within an hour or so after it, 

 the face of the heavens was as calm and serene as it had been 

 before it. 



One more day's tramp brought this hunting-trip to an end. 

 It had certainly been an enjoyable one, notwithstanding the 

 inclemency of tin- weather and the comparative smallness of 

 the bag. Hut to the true lover of wild sport, who is always 

 an ardent admirer of nature as well, the mere slaying of his 

 game is certainly not what conduces most to his delight in liis 

 wurk. I-W my o\vn part, a feeling of regret has always been 

 mingled with my exultation, at seeing a beautiful animal I 

 have brought down lying lifeless before me, lii\\f\vr inron- 



