286 AUGUST. 



the landscape as clear as before, but filling the 

 sky with an unbroken expanse of motionless 

 cloud. I returned in the evening ; the heavens 

 and earth exhibited a magnificent spectacle. 

 The landscape possessed a striking lustre and 

 clearness, and was brought, as it were, imme- 

 diately to the eye by that effect of transparent 

 vapour which often precedes thunder-storms. 

 The vault of heaven was strewn with what are 

 called horse-tail clouds, some white, drawn out 

 like webs of some light and transparent tex- 

 ture, suddenly seized and tossed about by a 

 giant hand, and curling up at their extremities 

 like tempestuous and foamy billows. In the 

 west the setting sun cast up his lines of ra- 

 diating beams to the zenith, which appeared 

 to be answered in the east by corresponding 

 radiations of black lines, which crossed the 

 clouds directly into the higher heavens. These 

 vanished with the sun. The heat of the atmo- 

 sphere during this time was intolerable, and the 

 evening terminated by a night of tremendous 

 thunder and lightning. 



Towards the end of the month symptoms or 

 the year's decline press upon our attention. 

 The morning and evening air has an autumnal 



