WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 383 



passed were instantly blotted out, and as it approached 

 I could see that in the centre it bulged and hung 

 down or rather slightly slanting forward in the 

 shape of an inverted cone with the apex cut off. 

 This bulging part was of a slaty black, and the 

 end travelled over the earth not higher than half 

 the elevation of an ordinary elm. It came up with 

 great speed, and in a moment I was completely 

 drenched, and the field was flooded. It did not seem 

 so much to rain as to descend in a solid sheet of water ; 

 this lasted a very short time, and immediately after- 

 wards the storm began to clear. Though not a per- 

 fect waterspout, it was something very near it. The 

 tree behind which I had taken shelter stood near a 

 large pond or mere, and I thought at the time that 

 that might have attracted the cloud. The field 

 quite ran with water, as if suddenly irrigated, but 

 the space thus flooded was of small area about an 

 acre. 



The haymakers sometimes talk of mysterious noises 

 heard in the very finest weather, when it is still and 

 calm, resembling extremely distant thunder. They 

 were convinced it was something " in the air ; " but 

 I feel certain it was the guns of the fleet exercising 

 at sea. In that case the sound of the explosion must 

 have travelled over fifty miles in a direct line sup- 

 posing it to come from the neighbourhood of the 

 nearest naval station. I have found by observation 

 that thunder cannot be heard nearly so far as the 

 sound of cannon. I doubt whether it is often heard 



