THE FIR TRIBE. 



333 



where around was heard the crashing of the 

 branches of the loftiest trees of the forest, which 

 fell to the earth wdth a noise like the breaking 

 of glass, yet so loud as to make the w^oods re- 

 sound. As the day advanced, instead of branches, 

 whole trees began to fall, and during twenty- 

 four hours the scene which took place w^as as 

 sublime as can w^ell be conceived. There was 

 no wind perceptible, yet, notwithstanding the 

 calmness of the day, the whole forest seemed 

 in motion, falling, wasting, or crumbling, as 

 it were, piecemeal. Crash succeeded to crash, 

 until at length these became so rapidly con- 

 tinuous as to resemble the incessant discharges 

 of artillery, gradually increasing, as from the 

 irregular firing at intervals of the outposts, to 

 the uninterrupted roar of a heavy cannonade. 

 Pieces of a hundred and fifty, and a hundred 

 and eighty feet in height, came thundering to 

 the ground, carrying others before them. Under 

 every tree was a rapidly accumulating debris of 

 displaced limbs and branches ; their weight in- 

 creased more than tenfold by the ice, and crush- 

 ing everything in their fall, with sudden and 

 terrific violence. Altogether, this spectacle was 

 one of indescribable grandeur. The roar, the 

 cracking and rending, the thundering fall of 

 the uprooted trees, the startling unusual sounds 

 and sights produced by the descent of such 

 masses of solid ice, and the suddenness of the 

 crash, when a neighbouring tree gave way, 

 was awful in the extreme. Yet all this was 

 going on in a dead calm, except, at intervals, 

 a gentle air from the south-east slightly w^aved 

 the topmost pines. Had the wind freshened. 



