ARTIFICIAL RAIJNS. 513 



dew, a fact, which I had never before witnessed, attracted 

 my particular attention, as indicating a state of the at- 

 mosphere still more alarming. The total destruction of the 

 crop seemed inevitable. I watched, with much solicitude, 

 the appearances and changes of the weather. The wind 

 was extremely changeable, and showers appeared in the 

 horizon at almost every point. About nine o'clock, on the 

 morning of the 6th, I ordered fires to be set, at different 

 places, to the marsh, contiguous to the Island. The fires 

 continued to spread during the day, and at night presented 

 a most beautiful scene. 



On the morning of the 7th, a gentle breeze sprung up 

 from the east, and blew steadily from that direction for sev- 

 eral hours, carrying the fire and smoke from the Island. 

 The smoke now presented the appearance of a vast and 

 stupendous range of mountains, broken in abrupt and crag- 

 gy peaks, gilded by the rays of the eastern sun, and reflect- 

 ing all the colors of the rainbow. While the grandeur and 

 magnificence of the scene was occupying the attention of 

 myself and friend, at about eleven o'clock, an upper and 

 directly opposite current of wind sprung up, driving the 

 upper part of this vast volume of smoke directly back in 

 the direction of the Island, wafting it over a space of at- 

 mosphere, perhaps two hundred or three hundred yards in 

 height, so singularly transparent, as to attract our particular 

 attention and remarks. This appearance continued for 

 twenty or thirty minutes, when it commenced raining from 

 this upper current of smoke through this extremely trans- 

 parent atmosphere. In twenty minutes more, the rain be- 

 came heavy and general over the whole Island, and con- 

 tinued for three hours, with the exception of two intervals 

 of a few minutes each. From the whole appearance, 1 was 

 so well satisfied that the fire exercised a powerful agency 

 in producing the rain more speedily than we should other- 

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