50 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



with its hue ; so that the real hill and the cloud merged 

 into each other. Either the barn and clump of trees 

 were reproduced or perhaps enlarged and distorted 

 by the refraction : the seeming column of smoke was 

 a fragment of a blacker colour which chanced to be in 

 a nearly perpendicular position. Even when recog- 

 nized as such, the illusion was still perfect ; nor could 

 the eye separate the hill from the unsubstantial 

 vapour. 



As I watched it the apparent column of smoke bent, 

 and its upper part floated away, enlarging just as 

 smoke, its upward motion overcome by the wind, 

 slowly yields to the current. Soon afterwards the 

 light breeze stretched out one end of the mass of cloud, 

 began to roll up the other, and presently lifted it, re- 

 vealing the real ridge beneath, which grew momen- 

 tarily more distinctly defined. Finally the misty 

 bank hung suspended over the down, and slowly sailed 

 eastwards with the wind. Some time afterwards I 

 saw a similar mirage-like enlargement of the down 

 by cloudy vapour resting on it and assuming its con- 

 tour ; but the illusion was not so perfect, because seen 

 from a more open spot, allowing an extended view 

 of the range, and because the cloud was lighter in 

 colour than the hill to which it clung. 



These clouds were, of course, passing at a very low 

 elevation above the earth ; in rainy weather, although 

 but a few hundred feet high, the ridges are frequently 

 obscured with cloud. The old folk in the vale, whose 

 whole lives have been spent watching and waiting on 



