16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
comparing observations; and they were talking
about the remarkable sense of the ominous
or of impending change in animals –
earthquake, eruption, eclipse (even lunar
eclipses in certain bats) – when a flock of huachua
geese flew straight at them at an extraordinary
speed, passing just over their
heads and with so great a rush of wings that
for a moment their words were lost. The geese
all wheeled together, returned at the same
height and speed, rose and then pitched on
the water, tearing the surface and throwing it
wide: they sat in a tight-packed group, their
heads stretched up; and high over them the
lake gulls turned, screaming, screaming.
Another minute passed and a prodigious
noise between a great thunder-clap and a
broadside made both men start up, part the
tall reeds and look behind them. They saw the
snow of the two peaks on either side of the