NATURAL HISTORY STUDIES 



of great heat the whole aspect of Nature occasionally 

 suggests sleepiness, especially about noon. A few 

 clouds hang motionless in a lofty blue sky, the air 

 is tremulous over the hot earth, the birds are all 

 hushed in the woods, the leaves droop after extreme 

 loss of water, the labourers have lain down in the 

 shade of the hedge, and there is scarcely a sound 

 save for the grasshoppers, whose interrupted chirping 

 makes us feel the vast background of silence. 

 Doubtless our own sleepiness exaggerates the im- 

 pression ; but when even the leaves sink into 

 " sleep," few living things are likely to be wakeful. 

 In fact, what we experience even in this country 

 is a suggestion of the summer slumbers of mud- 

 fishes, amphibians, and crocodiles, when the waters 

 dry up in the pools of tropical countries. It is 

 interesting to visit certain kinds of shore pools 

 in the heat of the day, when there is a stillness like 

 that of an Eastern city in siesta ; and again in the 

 morning or late afternoon, when there is all the 

 activity of a Donnybrook Fair. 



Death in Summer 



There is another phenomenon that has often 

 impressed us on a bright and breezy summer day 

 the sudden appearance of a dark cloud, which, 

 though heavy with dust and rain, drifts rapidly 

 across the sky. We can follow its shadow as it 

 sweeps over the fields and the firth ; and as it blots 

 out the sun from us for a few long seconds, we feel 

 a shiver of suspense. Without being sentimental 

 we may take this cloud, no bigger than a man's 



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