The flames rose up high above the tops of the trees in the rear.  The crackling of the burning branches, and the loud reports as the thick trunks were split in two by the heat, sounded alarmingly near--the whole landscape before us being lighted up by the glare shed from the burning forest.  We might, we believed, escape with our lives, were we to leave the waggon and the cattle, but that was very far from Uncle Mark's thoughts.  By voice and whip we urged on the oxen, and shouting, shrieking, and using our thick sticks, we endeavoured to drive forward our refractory charges.