3 2 
The Tornado. 
fish-eagle. This Gypohierax (Angolensis) is a very 
wild bird, flushed at 200 yards : I heard of, but 
I never saw, the Gwanyoni, which M. du Chaillu, 
(chapter xvi.) calls Guanionian, an eagle or a 
vulture said to kill deer. Rain fell at times, 
thunder, anything but “ sweet thunder,” again 
rolled in the distance ; and lightning flashed and 
forked before and behind us, becoming painfully 
vivid in the shades darkening apace. We could 
see nothing of the channel but a steel-grey streak, 
like a Damascus blade, in a sable sheathing of tall 
mangrove avenue ; in places, however, tree-clumps 
suggested delusive hopes that we were approaching 
a region where man can live. On our return we 
found many signs of population which had escaped 
our sight during the fast-growing obscurity. The 
first two reaches were long and bulging; the next 
became shorter, and Prince Paul assured us that, 
after one to the right, and another to the left, we 
should fall into the direct channel. Roi Denis 
had promised us arrival at sunset ; his son gradu¬ 
ally protracted sunset till midnight. Still the 
distance grew and grew. I now learned for the 
first time that the boat was too large for the 
channel, and that oars were perfectly useless 
ahead. 
At 8 p.M. we entered what seemed a cul de sac; 
it looked like charging a black wall, except where 
a gleam of grey light suggested the further end of 
