THE CLOUDS 95 



cloud. Now, in meteorological terminology a nimbus 

 cloud is one which is not only dark, even black, but 

 from which rain is actually falling. Now, although I 

 have not the least desire to question the conclusions 

 of Luke Howard, Clement Ley, and others who have 

 made clouds the principal part of their life study, I 

 feel that the last clause of this definition of a nimbus 

 cloud is superfluous and really unwarranted. For 

 instance, who that has ever been in Malta in the 

 summer and seen the mighty masses of rain-laden 

 cloud passing over the parched island without shed- 

 ding one drop of their priceless contents, could fail 

 to understand that although these celestial reservoirs 

 were indeed nimbus clouds the rain was not actually 

 falling, and for some curious reason refused to fall 

 where it would do an enormous amount of good? 

 Often I have wished that it were possible to send a 

 shell laden with high explosives soaring into the 

 bosom of one of those vast clouds, and make it let 

 fall its flood of blessing upon the fertile land which 

 lay white and arid beneath, yet ready to be clothed 

 with living green in a few hours at the touch of the 

 literally golden rain. Only it is a daring thing to 

 meddle on such a grand scale with Nature's opera- 

 tions. Such an interference might possibly result 

 in whole terraces of laboriously piled-up soil being 

 washed away by the tremendous impact of the de- 

 scending flood, leaving only bare rocks to greet the 

 hapless peasant; for rain is one thing and a cloud- 

 burst is another, as many unfortunate farmers have 

 found to their bitter cost. 



Which brings us to a consideration of the most 

 important cloud-form of all in its effects upon the 



