Without a word of reply the Poenan pointed towards the sky in the north which was getting rapidly darker, presaging a thunder-storm. Dalim told the Europeans that a soho, or flood, called bandjer amongst the Malays, could be extremely dangerous sometimes, for the waters rise suddenly and run with irresistible force. Vessels caught by the soho are frequently carried away and are exposed to the danger of foundering in one of the whirlpools, or of being shattered against the cliffs of the kihams. As soon as they entered the mouth of the soengei Samoehing they landed and drew their boats as high on the shore as possible in order to place them beyond the reach of the flood. They were still occupied in this work when a noise like distant thunder was heard approaching nearer and nearer. The Europeans really believed it to be thunder, a conviction which seemed to be confirmed by the increasing darkness of the sky and the large drops of rain that began to fall. Dalim, however, called the deserters aside and together they mounted the hill which separated the Kapoeas from the Samoehing. There they had a magnificent view over the whole river. Perfect silence reigned everywhere; not a leaf moved, not a blade of grass vibrated, not a bird twittered nor a moth took wing. The clouds heavily pressed downward on the earth causing an insufferable heat, a feeling of depression under which the whole universe seemed to labor. Nothing but the still distant roar was heard gradually approaching nearer and nearer. “Look! Look!” Schlickeisen cried, pointing to the upper part of the stream in anxious astonishment, whence with a roar like thunder there advanced a wall of water from twelve to fifteen feet high, as if about to overwhelm everything—hill and wood and travellers. Rushing forward and carrying every obstacle before it, it hurried on like a perpendicular cliff, foaming and seething as if discharged from some subterranean volcano. Under the irresistible influence of the waters rocks groaned as if wrenched from their base; trees were uprooted and carried away; large masses of stones became dislodged from their encasements of clay in the banks and fell into the surging flood, being kept afloat for a moment by the immense power and rapidity of the stream. The appearance of this wall of water lasted for an instant only, but when it had passed our travellers like a shadow, the surface of the river had risen some fifteen feet and kept rising still, so that where only a few moments before a crystalline stream had sped over its bed of clear white sand and pebbles, nothing but a roaring and seething yellow turbid mass of water was now to be seen. Our Europeans had looked on at this phenomenon with the highest admiration, but before the swift-moving wall of water had entirely disappeared from view their attention was diverted by the storm which suddenly burst forth in all its majestic grandeur.