348 AUGUST. 



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 atmosphere during this time was 

 intolerable, and the evening terminated by a night 

 of tremendous thunder and lightning. 



Towards the end of the month symptoms of the 

 year's decline press upon our attention. The morn- 

 ing and evening air has an autumnal freshness ; the 

 hedge-fruit has acquired a tinge of ruddiness ; the 

 berries of the mountain-ash have assumed their 

 beautiful orange hue ; and swallows twitter as they 

 fly, or sit perched in a row upon a rail or the dead 

 bough of a tree. The swft has taken its departure. 

 That beautiful phenomenon, the white fog, is again 

 beheld rolling its snowy billows along the valleys ; 

 the dark tops of trees emerging from it as from a 

 flood. 



Now is the season for enjoying the animated 

 solitude of sea-side rambles. The time is also 

 come when sportsmen may renew their healthful 

 recreation : the season for grouse-shooting upon the 

 moors commencing on the 12th of August, whereas 

 partridge-shooting does not begin till the 1st of 

 September, when the corn-lands may be expected to 

 be cleared. 



August is so termed after Augustus, as July from 

 Julius Caesar. The Romans were accustomed to 

 call July and August originally Quintilis and Sex- 

 tilis, or fifth and sixth, dating from the old yearly 



