face of the earth the whirlwinds
swept immense snow-clouds that rose up instantaneously, and shot off
along the brows and ravines of the solitary wild, sometimes descending
into the valleys, and again rushing up the almost perpendicular sides
of the mountains, with a speed, strength, and noise, that mocked
at everything possessing life; whilst in the air the tumult and the
darkness continued to deepen in the most awful manner. The winds seemed
to meet from every point of the compass, and the falling drifts flew
backward and forward in every direction; the cold became intense, and
Owen's efforts to advance homewards were beginning to fail. He was
driven about like an autumn leaf, and his dog, which kept close to him,
had nearly equal difficulty in proceeding. No sound but that of the
tempest could now be heard, except the screaming of the birds as they
were tossed on sidewing through the commotion which prevailed. In this
manner was Owen whirled about, till he lost all knowledge of his local
situation, being ignorant whether he advanced towards home or otherwise,
His mouth and eyes were almost filled with driving sleet; sometimes a'
cloud of light sandlike drift would almost bury him, as it crossed, or
followed, or opposed his path; sometimes he would sink to the middle in
a snow-wreath, from which he extricated himself with great difficulty;
and among the many terrors by which he was beset, that of walking into
a lake, or over a precipice, was not the least paralyzing. Owen was a
young man of great personal strength and activity, for the possession
of which, next to his brother, he had been distinguished among his
companions; but he now became totally exhausted; the chase after
M'Kenna, his former exertion, his struggles, his repeated falls, his
powerful attempts to get into the vicinity of life, the desperate
strength he put forth in breaking through the vortex of the whirlwind,
all had left him faint, and completely at the mercy of the elements.

The cold sleet scales were now frozen to ice on his cheeks; his clothes
were completely incrusted with the hard snow, which had been beating
into them by the strength of the blast, and his joints were getting
stiff and benumbed. The tumult of the tempest, the whirling of the
snow-clouds, and the thick snow, now falling, and again tossed upwards
by sudden gusts to the sky, deprived him of all power of reflection,
and rendered him, though not altogether blind or deaf, yet incapa