Lost in the Bush. 265 



lightning about every five minutes (and such thunder and 

 lightning as we can never hear or see far north of the Equator), 

 accompanied at first with a rain which was perfectly deluging. 

 I was at that time camped about twenty miles south of Mel- 

 bourne, on the beach, not far from the Cannonade Creek, then 

 a wild spot, little frequented, and close to a large swamp, 

 at that day, perhaps, one of the very best places for duck in 

 western parts. The station master gave me leave to live in an 

 old hut, which I cobbled up with the aid of a few old bullock 

 hides and tea-tree scrub, and made habitable; and although I 

 certainly have lived in finer and better furnished rooms, I 

 really do not believe I ever was more happy than in that old 

 bush hut. At the time I mention, I was without a mate, and 

 one afternoon, when coming home from a solitary ramble over 

 the plains, I called upon a cockatoo settler, an old friend of 

 mine, who had bought a paddock about three miles back in the 

 forest, where I got my tea. The afternoon had been hot and 

 sultry, the dogs could not work, the quail lay like stones, and 

 a kind of oppressive stillness reigned over all, unbroken save 

 by a low, distant, angry rumbling, which every now and then 

 struck the ear. All betokened the coming tempest. " You'd 

 better not get bushed to-night," said the station master, as he 

 passed me on his road home, driving in some cattle; "for 

 we shall have dirty weather before morning." " No fear, mate," 

 was my reply, but it turned out a very random one. 



It was pitch dark when I left my friend's house, and I had 

 about three English miles of forest between me and my tent. 

 A few drops of heavy rain now and then fell, but I fancied 

 I should get home before the storm broke out. I kept 

 down his paddock fence and came well into the forest. The 

 night was so still that I could hear the sea come rolling in on 

 the beach, so I had not the least difficulty in steering my course. 

 I was walking on jolly enough, when all of a sudden, without 

 the slightest warning, Bang ! burst the thunder right over my 

 head; such a peal, it seemed as if neither heaven or earth 

 could have stood so sudden a concussion, followed by a flash of 

 lightning, the like of which I had never seen before, but which 

 I was fated to see more than once again on that night, and, 

 without anything of a metaphor, the flood-gates of heaven did 

 really open, for such a deluge of rain came down, that I could 

 compare it to nothhig except having a pail of water emptied 

 on me. It was about nine o'clock; this deluge of rain lasted 

 for at least an hour, without diminishing one drop, nor did the 

 storm abate one bit of its violence till just before the sun rose, 

 about five next moruing. I tried to find my way back to the 

 fence, but could not ; the thunder crashed over my head, not a 

 sudden clap, but a continued roar for nearly a minute, when 



