Lake George 



ure's glittering eye, followed by a startling crash. 

 Such was not the method of this tempest's mad- 

 ness. Early in the evening, the distant, silent 

 glow in several quarters of the heavens gave 

 premonition of the scene to come. As the 

 night advanced, and the storm squadrons gath- 

 ered in ever-narrowing circles, the flashes be- 

 came at length extremely numerous, but as yet 

 without even an ominous rumble to break the 

 silence; which I can only explain by the fact 

 that the electrical discharges were almost ex- 

 clusively from cloud to cloud, so that the thun- 

 der was reflected away from the earth. At 

 about ten o'clock the storm had swept directly 

 overhead, incessant flashes filled the sky, and, 

 while in ordinary storms it is a reign of dark- 

 ness, broken by occasional blinding light, the 

 night was now continuously luminous, inter- 

 rupted by instant flashes of darkness. The en- 

 tire landscape — mountains, lake, and islands — 

 came clearly into view beneath a steady glare 

 that surpassed the brightest moonlight, and, for 

 a quarter of an hour, one needed no artificial 

 light even to read the time upon a watch. 

 And now, amid torrents of rain, 



"broke 

 The thunder like a whole sea overhead " 



233 



