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gradually rising, I stood upon a chair, to keep me above its surface*. 

 by midnight it had risen above three feet. The shrieks of the sur- 

 rounding women and children, and the moaning of cattle, espe- 

 cially of dying camels, were horrible. To increase my distress, 

 the pins gave way, and the tent fell upon me, when no calls for 

 assistance could be heard. Providentially it was a small Indian 

 tent, with a centre pole, round which it clung; had it been the 

 colonel's usual marquee, of English canvas, I must have been 

 smothered. At last, finding myself nearly exhausted, I determined 

 to make one effort more for my deliverance, in which I happily 

 succeeded. Guided through the lake by tremendous flashes of 

 lightning, after many difficulties, I reached the hut whither they 

 had conveyed the colonel, and there found the surgeon-general, 

 and several other gentlemen, drying their clothes round a large fire 

 in the centre: with them I passed the remainder of this miserable 

 night, among serpents, scorpions, and centipedes, which the fire 

 within and the heavy rain without had driven from their hiding- 

 places. Several of our men were stung by the scorpions, and bit 

 by snakes and centipedes; none fatally. The scorpion, though less 

 dangerous than the malignant serpents, inflicts a wound Avhich, 

 like that of the centipedes, is attended with inflammation and fever; 

 his sting at the end of the tail he darts with great force at the ob- 

 ject of his fury; the latter bites by means of strong forceps at the 

 mouth: this reptile is more common than the scorpion, and more 

 easily concealed. If the scorpion is surrounded by flaming spirits 

 or burning embers, and can find no egress, he stings himself to 

 death. 



Such was our night: the next morning the camp exhibited a 



VOL. II. it 



