From many a horrid rift, abortive pour’d
Fierce rain with lightning mix’d, water with fire
In ruin reconciled; nor slept the winds
Within their stony caves, but rush’d abroad
From the four hinges of the world, and fell
On the vexed wilderness, whose tallest pines
(Though rooted deep as high) and sturdiest oaks
Bow’d their stiff necks, loaden with stormy blast
Or torn up sheer.”
The men’s tent, which was secured with numerous strong straps to the side of the wagon, was earned bodily away, and men and quadrupeds were literally swimming in the torrent, which, rushing down with irresistible fury from the slopes of the hills, swept over our camping-ground. The poor dogs howled from fear and suffering. Every moment I expected to see the wagon capsized by the blast, or, what was worse, struck by lightning, as we had somewhat incautiously encamped under a kameel-doorn boom, which is one of the most certain of conductors. Indeed, nearly two thirds of the full-grown trees of this kind are found splintered by the electric fluid.