158 WILD SCENES AND WILD HUNTERS. 



committed their depredations on the farms of the surrounding 

 district. I have crossed the path of the storm, at a distance 

 of a hundred miles from the spot where I witnessed its fury, 

 and, a^ain, four hundred miles farther off, in the State of 



7 O ' ' 



Ohio. Lastly, I observed traces of its ravages on the sum- 

 mits of the mountains connected with the Great Pine Forest 

 of Pennsylvania, three hundred miles beyond the place last 

 mentioned. In all these different parts, it appeared to me 

 not to have exceeded a quarter of a mile in breadth. 



But even this is not enough for Nature's child ; he must 

 be accepted playmate of the earthquake too, and calmly rock 

 upon its waves. He tells us : 



Travelling through the Barrens of Kentucky (of which I 

 shall give you an account elsewhere) in the month of Novem- 

 ber, I was jogging on one afternoon, when I remarked a 

 sudden and strange darkness rising from the western horizon. 

 Accustomed to our heavy storms of thunder and rain, I took 

 no more notice of it, as I thought the speed of my horse 

 might enable me to get under shelter of the roof of an acquaint- 

 ance, who lived not far distant, before it should come up. 

 I had proceeded about a mile, when I heard what I imagined 

 to be the distant rumbling of a violent tornado, on which I 

 spurred my steed, with a wish to gallop as fast as possible to 

 the place of shelter ; but it would not do, the animal knew 

 better than I what was forthcoming, and, instead of going 

 faster, so nearly stopped, that I remarked he placed one foot 

 after another on the ground with as much precaution as if 

 walking on a smooth sheet of ice. I thought he had suddenly 

 foundered, and, speaking to him, was on the point of dis- 

 mounting and leading him, when he all of a sudden fell a- 

 groaning piteously, hung his head, spread out his four legs, 

 as if to save himself from falling, and stood stock still, con- 

 tinuing to groan. I thought my horse was about to die, and 

 would have sprung from his back had a minute more elapsed, 

 but at that instant all the shrubs and trees began to move 



