When We Mustered Up Sufficient Energy To Turn Our Aching
Eyes To The Heavens, We Saw Black Storm-Clouds Piling Themselves One
Above Another, And Hope, Which "Springs Eternal In The Human Breast,"
Saw In Them Our Hope, Our Salvation.
The fall of the barometer, and the howling of the monkeys on shore
also, warned us of the approaching tempest, so we prepared for
emergencies by securing the vessel fore and aft under the lee of a
rugged sierra before the storm broke - and break it did in all its
might.
Suddenly the wind swept down upon us with irresistible fury, and we
breathed - we lived again. So terrific was the sweep that giant trees,
which had braved a century's storms, fell to the earth with a crash.
The hurricane was truly fearful. Soon the waters of the lake were
lashed into foam. Great drops of rain fell in blinding torrents, and
every fresh roll of thunder seemed to make the mountains tremble,
while the lightning cleft asunder giant trees at one mighty stroke.
[Illustration: VICTORIA REGIA, THE WORLD'S LARGEST FLOWER]
In the old legends of the Inca, read on the "Quipus," we find that
Pachacamac and Viracocha, the highest gods, placed in the heavens
"Nusta," a royal princess, armed with a pitcher of water, which she
was to pour over the earth whenever it was needed. When the rain was
accompanied by thunder, lightning, and wind, the Indians believed
that the maiden's royal brother was teasing her, and trying to wrest
the pitcher from her hand.
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