BOUND LAKE VICTORIA NYANZA. 
203 
the aspect of the sky had long been threatening. 
Clouds surged up in thick masses from that direction, 
and cast a gloom over the wood-clothed slopes and 
crests of Usuguru, which became almost as black as a 
velvet pall, while the lake grew as quiet as though 
vitrified into glass. Soon the piled up cloud-mass grew 
jagged, and a portentous zigzag line of deep sable hue 
ran through its centre, from which the storm seemed 
to issue. I requested the crew to come farther aft, 
and, fastening a double rope to the stone anchor, 
prepared every mug and baler for the rain with which 
we were threatened. The wind then fell, as though 
from above, upon our bowed heads with an overpower- 
ing force, striving against the resistance which it met, 
as if it would bear us down to the bottom of the lake, 
and then, repelled by the face of the water, it brushed 
it into millions of tiny ripples. The temperature fell 
to 62° Falir., and with this sudden cold down dropped 
a severe shower of hailstones of great size, which pelted 
us with great force, and made our teeth chatter. After 
this the rain fell in sheets, while the lightning blazed, 
preceding the most dreadful thunder-claps I remember 
to have ever heard. 
The rain, indeed, fell in such quantities that it 
required two men for each section to keep the boat 
sufficiently buoyant to ride the crest of the waves. The 
crew cried out that the boat was sinking — that, if the 
rain continued in such volume, nothing could save us. 
In reply, I oidy urged them to bale her out faster. 
The sable mass of Usuguru — as I observed by the 
bars of intense light which the lightning flashed almost 
every second — was still in front, and I knew, therefore, 
that we were not being swept very fast to sea. Our 
energies were wholly devoted to keeping our poor pelted 
selves afloat, and this occupied the crew so much that 
they half forgot the horrors of the black and dismal 
night. For two hours this experience lasted, and then, 
unburdening our breasts with sighs of gladness not 
unmixed with gratitude, we took our anchor on board, 
and stole through the darkness to the western side of 
