MAY. 93 



Our climate is no doubt less sunny and more frequently 

 wet than that of many another part of these favoured 

 islands, but where could one see more prevalent greenery 

 (outside of the Emerald Isle), or finer cloud effects, and 

 more beautiful alternations of light and shade on the 

 hills, than we have enjoyed this last summer and autumn. 

 Words fail one in attempting to describe them. 



One afternoon recently the skies and surrounding scenery 

 seemed to be made up of impossible tints, which changed 

 with the changing hours. The morning had been close and 

 bright, with the suspicion of a warm north-west wind 

 such a day as we often have when the rain is pouring 

 down on the West Coast but as the day advanced leaden- 

 coloured clouds began to gather over the sky. Out at sea 

 especially, where there were no hills to an-est the move 

 ment of the south- westerly current which formed them, 

 they rolled up thick and dark, causing the ocean to assume 

 a deep and gloomy hue. The waters of the bay seemed 

 also of a dark leaden colour, deeper than that of tfye ocean, 

 while the town and the hills of the Peninsula stood out 

 beautifully clear and distinct against the sombre back- 

 ground. Though the wind was blowing gently from the 

 west, the dark clouds which were at no great height 

 were moving due south, while above them was moving 

 the cold southerly current, which was really forming, them 

 from the moisture of the warmer air below. This is a 

 common phenomenon in this part, the cold current which 

 brings down our south-westerly rains often blowing over 

 the top of the warmer surface air and ultimately dispersing 

 it. It seemed as if some great atmospheric disturbance 

 was approaching, and the heavens appeared to be gather- 

 ing up their forces for an outburst. But the threatened 

 storm never came, the outlines gradually became softer 

 and the sky less lowering as the afternoon passed, and just 

 shortly before the sun set behind the western hills his 

 nearly level rays, breaking through an opening in the 

 clouds, shot across the landscape, illuminating the hill-tops 

 and pouring their mellowing light over the scene. It was 

 a wonderful transformation, almost awful in its grandeur 



