this constellation, and the star Argus, have for an Australian traveller, when describing a flood rapidly approaching his party. “Some hours later, and after the moon had risen, a murmuring sound like that of a distant waterfall, mingled with occasional cracks, as of breaking timber, drew our attention, and I hastened to the river bank; by very slow degrees the sound grew louder, and at length, so audible, as to draw various persons besides, from the camp to the river side. Still no flood appeared, although its approach was indicated by the occasional rending of trees with a loud noise. Such a phenomenon in a most serene moonlight night was quite new to us all. At length, the rushing sound of waters, and loud cracking of timber, announced that the flood was in the next bend. It rushed into our sight, glittering in the moonbeams, a moving cataract, tossing before it ancient trees, and snapping them against its banks. It was preceded by a point of meandering water, picking its way, like a thing of life, through the deepest parts of the dark, dry, and shady bed, of what thus again became a flowing river By my party, situated as we were at that time, beating about the country, and impeded in our journey, solely by the almost total absence of water, suffering occasionally from thirst and extreme heat, I am convinced, the scene never can be forgotten. Here came at once, abundance, the product of storms in the far-off mountains, that overlooked our homes. My first impulse was to have welcomed this flood on our knees, for the scene was sublime in itself, while the subject-an adundance of water, sent to us in a desert-greatly heightened the effect to our eyes; suffice it to say, I had witnessed nothing of such interest in all my Australian travels. · Even the heavens presented something new, at least uncommon, and therefore this constellation, and the star Argus, have for an al OK |