1TO PLEASURES OF ANGLING-. 



ting poles and restored them to their owners. In 

 the two minutes all this occupied there was concen- 

 trated as much excitement as one ordinarily expe- 

 riences in a twelvemonth of quiet life. When, 

 under the assurance of safety, the reaction came, I 

 found myself as tremulous as if I had been wrest- 

 ling with an athlete. 



Our first ten miles were passed without any other 

 adventure. But we were doomed to encounter one 

 of those terrific thunder storms which are only met 

 with in their grand and magnificent proportions in 

 mountainous regions. It burst upon us with start- 

 ling abruptness. The bright shining sun was sud- 

 denly obscured by heavy gray clouds, which came 

 flying and rolling toward us as if propelled by a 

 thousand tornadoes. These were followed by a 

 troop of dense clouds black as night, from amid 

 which there sounded out such peals of thunder as 

 shook the huge mountains to their very founda- 

 tions, and such incessant, sharp, quick lightning- 

 flashes as " struck terror to the soul " of the most 

 intrepid among us. The whole heavens were ablaze, 

 and the almost midnight darkness which had thus 

 unexpectedly fallen upon us was lit up as if by a 

 limitless conflagration. And then were opened 

 upon us the flood-gates of the skies, and we " took 

 to the woods." The grouping of the drenched 

 crowd as they sought shelter from the liquid ava- 



