Page:Victoria, with a description of its principal cities, Melbourne and Geelong.djvu/88

 in the colony. The day had closed ere I had time to take up the track through the forest, and I knew not what direction to take across an extensive plain before me. Thus night closed upon me; the repeated flashes of lightning rendered darkness visible, and coruscations and lurid glare made it appear as if the very atmosphere was on fire. The very air I breathed was tainted with strong sulphuric odour. Loud and rapid peals of thunder reverberated from hill to hill around me, and the forked lightning struck the earth in repeated flashes at my very feet. My horse was scared, and refused to move. At length the war of the elements seemed to close; and now huge torrents of rain came pouring down. Sheltering myself beneath my horse in an open space, to avoid the falling trees repeatedly struck by the lightning, shivering them to atoms, I patiently watched through that fearful night; and when the daylight did appear, fearful was the havoc around me—the combined power of both lightning and whirlwind had done its part: the giant lords of the forest were either strewn on the ground, stripped of their branches by the devastating hurricane, or split from stem to stern, prostrated on the ground, displaying the mighty power that had overthrown them. The warm rays of a bright autumnal sun, and the entire cessation of the rain and tempest, caused all around to appear calm and placid, with a balmy freshness in the air, from the heavy torrents that fell; and though my limbs were stiff from the weary watching through