nean summer day, but about camping time the low 0 “ 25.
westering sun became quickly obscured, and the clouds Mutembo.
seemed advancing from tbe nortb-west, nortb, and
north-east witb startling rapidity towards tbe zemtb.
Looking behind at tbe south, we saw rank after
rank of voluminous cloud rising as though to meet
them. We bad often seen similar features in the sky
towards sunset, but on this day there was an ominous
depth of blackness to attract our attention. Still, we
could find no place for shelter, the impervious bush
sloped from under the overhanging boughs of the
forest monarchs down to the river surface with an impenetrable
closeness that would resist the sharp nose
of a crocodile. - We were m a channel two hundred
yards wide, walled in by a bank of vegetation that
rose 150 feet high. Two lofty fortress walls could not
have been more inhospitable to us.. Therefore, while
the skies warned us to shelter, the shores on either
side positively refused it. The zenith became finally
! overcast and gloomy, but the northern sky changed its
! hue to an ashy grey, wherein the tempest brooded.
| Through some invisible influence,- the river’s face
became unruffled, the tiniest leaf hung still, the tallest
reed stood straight, as though “ attention ” had been
ordered, and Nature bad stiffened into a petrified stillness.
Only for a few minutes,, however, for presently
there was a simultaneousness of movement. All the
millions of leaves in the fprests were started into a
violent rustling. Millions, of others came sailing down
before the blast of the tempest, and millions of wave