234 A SOUND HEARD IN SLEEP 



St. Cuthbert's Church at Wells, where there is a peal 

 of eight big bells, so as to be at the very fountain- 

 head of the great vibration during the ringing of 

 the chimes. I have described the experience in 

 another book, Afoot in England^ and need say no 

 more here except that it was a most fascinating as 

 well as painful one, and that so long as I endured it 

 I had the fear that it would make me deaf for ever 

 or else deprive me of my senses. 



My third was the most terrible of all — a strange 

 experience, since this sound was heard when I was 

 unconscious, in a deep sleep. 



I was eighteen years old at the time, at my home 

 on the pampas, and soundly sleeping at between 

 one and two o'clock in the morning, when I had a 

 terrible dream. I dreamed that I was standing on 

 the plain, and that it was noon and a day of brilliant 

 sunshine with a very pure blue sky. Looking up, I 

 saw a dark object like a cloud at a vast height, but 

 coming swiftly down towards the earth. I then 

 perceived that it was no cloud but something solid, 

 and as it came lower it resolved itself into iron, in 

 bars about twice the thickness round of a hogshead, 

 the bars being a mile or two in length. When the 

 lowest, which were very distinctly seen, were near 

 the earth, I could see that they extended in a stream 

 of bars — tens of thousands or millions of bars — far 

 up into the heavens until they faded from sight. 

 Gazing up at this swift-coming torrent, I said: This 

 is the end of everything; all life will be killed on 

 earth by the shock, and the earth itself will be driven 



