INDIAN-SUMMER. 461 



The connection of electricity with the hygrometric state 

 of the air is a subject of interest, and exhibits sanitary rela- 

 tions of vital moment. 



Local electrical phenomena also occur on the mountain 

 ranges. The higher currents, with differently charged clouds, 

 or masses of air holding water in a state of suspension, in 

 passing through the mountain heights, bristling with forests, 

 which are constantly-acting conductors, as might be ex- 

 pected, give rise to varied electrical demonstrations. 



The volumes of air in the forest spaces are constantly 

 more or less highly charged with electricity from the friction 

 of the rolling masses above. This explains the vivid and 

 etherial nervous exaltation always experienced upon enter- 

 ing a mountain wood, and which is as real and tangible, 

 even to an unimpressible person, as the earth on which he 

 walks. 



INDIAN-SUMMER. 



The meteor of the Indian-summer is of exceeding beauty 

 and interest on the mountain. The causes of this peculiar 

 condition of the atmosphere have been variously estimated 

 and rendered by different writers on the subject. The phe- 

 nomenon is most striking on the high range of knobs of the 

 summit. They seem to repose in the light of a new heaven, 

 and to be arrayed by the genii for the advent of some rare and 

 unexpected pageantry. The air is pervaded by a generally 

 diffused haze of an azure or smoky hue, resting upon the 

 earth like a translucent fleece, imparting to the sunlight, as 

 illuminating objects, a variety of tints, violet and gold. At 

 times, the setting sun, half veiled with ruddy glow, descends 

 a globe of fire, while the landscape assumes the strange, dis- 

 astrous aspect of the surface under the shadows of the 

 eclipse. The charm of the still, hushed, almost perpetual 

 twilight of the Indian-summer days, brings the world into 

 the finest pictures of quietness and sweetness, contrast 

 and surprise. A dreamy opium-trance steals upon the 



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