of the Old World. 365 



the weather-side, so as to make it impervious to the 

 weather. Hardly were our preparations completed, 

 when the sky became uniformly black and gleamless, 

 except when illuminated at intervals by the flashes of 

 bluish-white lightning, and the thunder, reverberating 

 among the mountains like the rolling of distant artil- 

 lery, now came nearer and nearer, until it seemed to 

 peal directly over head, whilst the rain, in a perfect 

 deluge, poured down upon the hot earth with that 

 peculiar hissing sound heard only in the tropical 

 climates. Later in the evening, the storm passed 

 over, and the night became bitterly cold, dense 

 vapours rising from the ground, which could not be 

 otherwise than unhealthy ; so it was determined to 

 commence a retrograde movement. We accordingly 

 started early the next morning for our hut in the 

 valley below, packed up our traps, and halted for the 

 night at the public bungalow near the village of 

 Annamullay. The next day we pushed on to 

 Coimbatore, where we remained a couple of days, as 

 B was suffering from diarrho3a, and then re- 

 turned to my domicile at Ootacamund. 



