306 THE CHEMISTRY OF CREATION. 



setting fire to vast plains of grass, and as the 

 result, expect storms of rain and even thunder; 

 nor are they, as it is said, often disappointed. 

 A similar effect has been also observed to follow 

 the occasional conflagrations which take place 

 in the American prairies and woods. It is con- 

 ceivable that in these cases great electrical dis- 

 turbances are occasioned which end in the 

 production of rain. It has been noticed at 

 Manchester, the weather has become constantly 

 and progressively more and more rainy as the 

 city has increased in size, and in the number of 

 its vast manufactories ; so that now the number 

 of rainy days is very large indeed.* M. Arago, 

 the French astronomer, appears disposed to 

 account for this singular fact by supposing that 

 the enormous chimneys of the cotton-mills, and 

 other factories, withdraw a large amount of 

 electricity from the atmosphere, and thus bring 

 about this effect. The effects of volcanos in 

 producing rain by their eruption are sometimes 

 very remarkable. It has been related, that 

 when a volcano bursts out in South America 

 during a dry season, it not unfrequently 

 changes it to a wet one. Great fires in dif- 

 ferent localities have been said to be often 



* A person much exasperated with Manchester weather, 

 said to another that it rained every day there. " No," re- 

 plied the other, " it only rains six days out of every seven !" 



