380 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



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 illumination. 

 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 

 anything approaching can be seen at some distance, 

 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 occasionally 

 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 sticks project- 

 ing from the adjacent stack of fagots also glow as if 



