r the strain to which they were subjected.
The whole heavens seemed in a continual blaze, and the thunder came, not
in bursts, but in one incessant roar, with intermittent cracks now and
then. Occasionally there were louder crashes than usual, which were
supposed to be only more violent thunder, but they were afterwards found
to be the results of very different causes.

"Now, old 'ooman, you turn in," said Adams, when the small hours of
morning had advanced a little. "You'll only be unfit for work to-morrow
if you sit up bobbin' about on your stool like that."

Mrs Adams obediently and literally tumbled into her bunk without taking
the trouble to undress, while her anxious husband trimmed the lamp, took
down the _Bounty's_ Bible, and made up his mind to spend the remainder
of the night in study.

Away at the other end of the village, near the margin of the ravine
before referred to, there stood a cottage, in which there was evidently
a watcher, for the rays of his light could be seen through the chinks of
the shutters. This was the house occupied by Thursday October Christian
and his wife and baby.

Thursday, like Adams, felt the anxieties of fatherhood strong upon him,
and was unable to sleep. He therefore, also like Adams, made up his
mind to sit up and read. Carteret's Voyages claimed his attention, and
he was soon deep in this old book, while his wife lay sound asleep, with
the baby in her arms in the same condition. Both were quite deaf to the
elemental turmoil going on around them.

The watchful husband and father was still poring over his book, when
there came a noise so deafening that it caused him to start to his feet,
and awoke his wife. "_That_ can't be thunder," he exclaimed, and sprang
to the door.

The sight that met his gale when he looked out was sufficiently
terrible. Day had begun to dawn, and the grey light showed him a large
mass of earth and trees moving down the ravine. The latter were
crashing and overturning. As he gazed they went bodily over the cliffs,
a mighty avalanche, into the sea. The whole had evidently been loosened
from the rocks by the action of the wind on the trees, coupled with the
deluges of rain.

But this was not the worst of it. While Thursday was gazing at this
sight, another crash was heard higher up the ravine. Turning quickly in
that direction, he saw the land moving slowly towards him. Immense
masses of rock were borne along with slow but irresistible