Dark Nights. 341 



are seen than when it is bright and clear. The kind 

 of weather they mean is when scudding clouds with 

 frequent breaks pass over, now obscuring and now 

 leaving part of the sky visible, and with occasional 

 showers. These shooting stars, they say, are but 

 just above the clouds, and are mere streaks of light : 

 by which they mean to convey that they have no 

 apparent nucleus and are different from the great 

 meteors which are sometimes seen. 



I have myself been often much interested in the 

 remarkable difference of the degree of darkness when 

 there has been no moon. There are nights when, 

 although the sky be clear of visible cloud and the 

 stars are shining, it is, in familiar phrase, ' as black 

 as pitch.' The sky itself is black between the stars, 

 and they do not seem to give the slightest illumina- 

 tion. On the other hand, there are nights without 

 a moon when it is (though winter time) quite light. 

 Hedges and trees are plainly visible ; the road is light, 

 and any thing approaching can be seen at some dis- 

 tance, and this occasionally happens though the sky 

 be partly clouded. So that the character of the night 

 does not seem to depend entirely upon the moon or 

 stars. The shepherds on the hills say that now and 

 then there comes an intense blackness at night which 

 frightens the sheep and makes them leap the hurdles. 



When logs of timber are split for firewood they 

 are commonly stacked ' four square,' and occasion- 

 ally such a stack, four or five feet high, may be seen 

 all aglow with phosphorescence. Each individual 

 split piece of wood is distinctly visible a pale 

 faintly yellow light seems to be emitted from its 

 surface. At the same time the ends of the fagot 



