et off at full speed amid the trees, and were lost to sight.

The heat grew more intense than ever, not a breath of wind was stirring,
the thunder roared in the distance, gradually the sky, as he could see
it through the branches, became of an inky blackness, till a dark pall
collected overhead, then the clouds appeared to break up, and whirled
round and round each other in a state of dreadful commotion, forked
lightening darted from the heavens, and the thunder, in rapid heavy
peals, roared and rattled again and again till the very trees of the
forest seemed to shake with the concussion. Far away out of the forest
arose a black cone-shaped column, which soon joined itself to the mass
of clouds overhead, the lightening flashing with greater vividness and
rapidity, the thunder becoming more deafening than ever. The sound
increased to a dreadful roar, coming nearer and nearer. He had no doubt
that it was indeed a whirlwind sweeping through the forest, he could
hear the tree tops dashed together, the rending branches, the crashing
of falling trees, as the stout branches were twisted round and round,
torn up by the roots, or snapped off as if they had been mere saplings.
Should the devastating tempest pass across where he stood, he could
scarcely hope to avoid being crushed by the falling trees.

He now remembered an open space a short distance off, which, had the
ground not been swampy, he would have selected for his camp. He hurried
towards it. As he made his way through the forest he could hear behind
him those dreadful sounds which betokened the rapid approach of the
hurricane. Already the tree tops were waving furiously above his head,
as he sprang out into the open space, towards which he was directing his
steps. In an instant after the tall trees came crashing down, and
almost lifted off his feet, he found himself encircled by masses of
leaves and boughs torn off and whirled through the air. On he sped till
he gained the centre of the meadow, when, on looking back, a wide
opening appeared in the part of the forest through which he had lately
passed. An avenue had been formed nearly two hundred yards in width, in
which not a tree remained standing, while it seemed to extend far away
into the depths of the forest.

As he was anxious to continue his journey, as soon as all was quiet, he
set off in the direction taken by the newly formed avenue. He had to
proceed a considerable distance towards the track which