Narrow Limits of the Rain. 37 



point in precisely the opposite direction, obeying the 

 ' undertow ' of the gale, as it were, drawing back- 

 wards. 



In summer especially, I fanc} r , an effect is some- 

 times produced by a variation in the electrical con- 

 dition of comparatively small areas, corresponding 

 perhaps with the difference of soil one becoming 

 more heated than another. Showers are certainly 

 often of a remarkably local character : a walk of half 

 a mile along a road dark from recent rain will fre- 

 quently bring }"ou to a place where the dust is white 

 and thick as ever, the line of demarcation sharply 

 marked across the highway. In winter rain takes a 

 wider sweep. 



From the elevation of the earthwork on the downs 



with a view of mile after mile of plain and vale 

 below it is easy on a showery summer day to ob- 

 serve the narrow limits of the rain. Dusky stream- 

 ers, like the train of a vast dark robe, slope down- 

 wards from the blacker water-carrying cloud above 



downwards and backwards, the upper cloud 

 travelling faster than the falling drops. Between 

 the hill and the rain yonder intervenes a broad space 

 of several miles, and beyond it again stretches a clear 

 opening to the horizon. The streamers sweep along 

 a narrow strip of country which is drenched with 

 rain, while on either side the sun is shining. 



It seems reasonable to imagine that in some way 

 that strip of country acts differently for the time 

 being upon the atmosphere immediately above it. So 

 singularly local are these conditions, sometimes, that 

 one farmer will show you a flourishing crop of roots . 

 which was refreshed by a heavy shower just in the 



