Song Birds and Water Fowl 



a strange, dirge-like accompaniment, not unlike 

 the solemn resonance of a cathedral bell, whose 

 echoes float in wild and wailing majesty upon 

 the wind. There was no terrific crash, followed 

 by a distant, disappearing roar that melts at 

 last to silence. The multitudinous reverber- 

 ations of incessant thunderings were all merged 

 into one long, loud, ever-present, and abso- 

 lutely unvaried tone, like a deep organ-bass 

 sustaining its sublime monotony, with neither 

 swell nor subsidence — a resistless tidal wave of 

 sound. For a brief time such an effect 

 might not be impressive ; but, as the moments 

 passed, that persistent, restrained, and yet gi- 

 gantic voice grew awful and overpowering. It 

 was like the Apocalyptic "sound of many 

 waters." For fully twenty minutes this heaven- 

 filling tone remained unchanged, then gradu- 

 ally grew fainter, until it died away — a noble, 

 strange accompaniment to the most impressive 

 night-scene I have ever looked upon. A moun- 

 tainous region is the chosen home of tempest 

 and lightning, but the natives declared that this 

 surpassed any exhibition of the kind they had 

 ever had at Lake George. 



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