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178 told me there were several years when not a season passed without at least one hurricane."

"Are they very destructive?" Fred inquired.

"I can best answer that question," said the gentleman, "by describing the first hurricane I ever passed through in the Feejees.



"I was on a plantation in which I had bought an interest, and during the whole of the month of March the weather was very calm and sultry. One day, towards the beginning of April, the wind turned to the north-west, which was quite unusual; squalls and showers followed, and then the breeze freshened into a gale. Heavy clouds covered the sky, thunder sounded loud and long, the barometer fell, and the clouds seemed to sweep just above the tops of the trees. Then the rain came in torrents, flooding all the level ground, and turning the brooks into rivers. Our party took shelter in the largest and strongest house in the neighborhood—one that had stood through several hurricanes, and was thought to be proof against them.