WHEN THE WINDS AWAKE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11397, 14 April 1899, Page 7

WHEN THE WINDS AWAKE.

By EDITH SKAKLK GROSSMAN. , A heavy (lawless morning, without, the freshness "of the dawn, has followed on tho night. The waves sit ebb tide creep backward from the long stretch of wet sand tha; catches a brief reflection of the red sun Before another hour the sun looks out pale- us the moon behind a dark and cloudy sky. There is not. a rustle ot a bird's wing, not a chirp ot any nestling, not a breath of wind waving the tufts of coarse "rass, and iussoek, and for once the sands stand as still as if sculptured, into mound and pyramids. Silence and stillness even-where. "The mountains on the west and'the hills on (he south rise uji dark and distinct against a sombre sky. lhe hours go by. If you watch you will see_ over the western ridyes a tumultuous, haze eatherin". gradually confusing their outlines, steaming up 'mto the sky. That is the first sign of the nor'-wester. Presently th" dead land begins to shift and stir uueasilv. There is the low faint sighing of the" wind over se,i ayd land, lapsing again into silence. The grass blades bow dewn a moment then static! still. Little puffs ot sand like curling smoke run along tho level surface of the shore. I'or a mmute the Spirit pauses to gather up its forces, then down it swoops with a rush and a whirl and a-shriek over the water and tho land. The crests ot the advancing waves are torn from them and flung backward. Then all is confusion; all is in liiotirm The sea turn!) livid. Bathers rush on shore to the nearest shelter. Mounds and ridges of sand are dissolving, th» little hills are oast down, and the hollows are heaved up. To-morrow the whole outlines of the dunes, may have changed. You can see no farther than a few yards before you for the blinding clouds of sand. Up 'the street the horses airl traps fly before the blast. The birds aye whirled "helplessly in the sky and utter shrill complaints. The sun breaks through the' clouds and the air becomes hotter and hotter the surface of the shore burning and glaring. The blast rages round tue house, that trembles and shakes; it drives in the sand beneath doors and windows, and shrieks in every crevice and cranny. Outside the lupins" shrink and shrivel and turn grey. If you arc sensitive you will find in the atmosphere something electric, and your nerves will give you the first premonition of an elemental, struggle. By the afternoon there is an aguish chill in that hot blast. Denser and blacker masses drift across the sky and gather in the west. Then conies a final convulsion of nature, a louder shriek, and then the artillery of rain and hail. The Spirit of the South-west has met the North and wrestled and overcome, and now it ravages the-land at its will, hoping destruction on destruction. .Down conies the tempest, with thunder and lightiung, sweeping over-the track of the nor'-wester, whirling the sand banks back, tearing up boughs and uprooting plants, striking with a finger ot kp the nerves of woeful picnickers |and- ol those that livß in carts;. All night the wind hcwls. Phosphorescent, flashes run along1 the waves and light up the darkness. "f-i! the morning a steadier drift _ of rain comes from' the hills,- hiding their faces. .A tired winci still creeps along the dull, cold sand and steel CTDV" sea. Great pieces of kelp, seaweed, white;shells, and the wrecks of monstrous marine < plants arc piled along the highwater mark, twined amongsr. dead boughs and-plants of komni and tutu and rotten wood of bush trees home to tne sea by Sooded rivers or washed by high tides from the wooded inlets and bays of the Peninsula. Then in a moan of weariness and penitence the south-west Spirit falls to sloop again, and the quiet rains hold possession of the earth.