house, and mounted a hill at a considerable distance
from it, for the express purpose of watching to advantage the
extraordinary aspect of the clouds. When we reached the top of
the hill half the heavens appeared hung with a heavy curtain; a
sort of deep blue black seemed to colour the very air; the
blizzards screamed, as with heavy wing they sought the earth. We
ought, in common prudence, to have immediately retreated to the
house, but the scene was too beautiful to be left. For several
minutes after we reached our station, the air appeared perfectly
without movement, no flash broke through the seven-fold cloud,
but a flickering light was visible, darting to and fro behind it.
By degrees the thunder rolled onward, nearer and nearer, till
the inky cloud burst asunder, and cataracts of light came pouring
from behind it. From that moment there was no interval, no
pause, the lightning did not flash, there were no claps of
thunder, but the heavens blazed and bellowed above and around us,
till stupor took the place of terror, and we stood utterly
confounded. But we were speedily aroused, for suddenly, as if
from beneath our feet, a gust arose which threatened to mix all
the elements in one. Torrents of water seemed to bruise the
earth by their violence; eddies of thick dust rose up to meet
them; the fierce fires of heaven only blazed the brighter for the
falling flood; while the blast almost out-roared the thunder.
But the wind was left at last the lord of all, for after striking
with wild force, now here, now there, and bringing worlds of
clouds together in most hostile contact, it finished by clearing
the wide heavens of all but a few soft straggling masses, whence
sprung a glorious rainbow, and then retired, leaving the earth to
raise her half crushed forests; and we, poor pigmies, to call
back our frighted senses, and recover breath as we might.

During this gust, it would have been impossible for us to have
kept our feet; we crouched down under the shelter of a heap of
stones, and, as we informed each other, looked most dismally
pale.

Many trees were brought to the earth before our eyes; some torn
up by the roots, and some mighty stems snapt off several feet
from the ground. If the West Indian hurricanes exceed this, they
must be terrible indeed.

The situation of Mrs. S--'s house was considered as remarkably
healthy, and I believe justly so, for on more than one occasion,
persons who were suffering from f