SUNSET AND NIGHT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2082, 18 January 1894, Page 39

SUNSET AND NIGHT.

A Seventy-mile Bush Scene During the Autumn Burns. Red clouds and sky — A blood-red sun sinks slowly in the west ; Great flame-edged masses of smoke-tinted grey, Rising in columns from the mountain's breast, Spread out in heaven, to veil the dying day. O'er all the day- worn earth the dimness steals ; O'er hill and vale the web of eve is spun ; Dark smoke-wreaths now the eastern range conceals ; The forest realms to night's soft sway are won. The flames rise high, And brighter blaze as darker grows the night — ; The hills are throbbing with their fllck'ring glow. Dark the forests loom beneath the crimson light That on the slopes around the burnings throw ; The standing trees assume fantastic forms. Outlined in fire against the rising ground ;k; k The rata old, out-vier of the storms, Sinks to the aßh-strewn earth with crackling sound. And through the night The roaring flames rush on in frenzied power, Impatient at the slowness of the breeze ; With darting tongues all eager to devour, They writhe and clamber round the fallen trees. The rotting branches, slowly smouldering, glow ; Bright showers of sparks in wanton circles fly ; While fiery streams in varying courses flow, And tinge with light the vault of smoke-hung sky.

Strange tints of light Appear upon the mountain's riven sides— Purple and crimson, banks of light and shade ; Great waves of gold, that rise and fall in tides. Lap the dark gloomy land the night has made. And dull grey clouds are eddying in the breath That sweeps from off the distant summits bareThat warns the forest monarchs of the death Betokened in the swift approaching glare. —Cecil Thornton.

Te Aute, H. 8., January 1894.