216 SUMMER 



the broken sky, that both thunder and lightning are apt to be 

 overlooked, and autumn thunder-storms are believed to be 

 rarer than they are. 



All weather broods closer on the sea and on mountains 

 than on the lowlands between them, where we mostly live. 

 Mountain ranges are the seat of the thunder-cloud, and their 

 summits and pinnacles are natural points of discharge for 

 accumulated electricity. Even on the crests of our English 

 mountains tingling ears and humming points of walking- 

 sticks sometimes give warning of keen electric activity, and 

 if there is any sign of an approaching thunder-cloud it is 

 wise to descend to safer levels. In the Alps one can stand 

 above the evening thunder-storm of the valleys, and watch 

 the turmoil in the earth- cloud from the cool clear air above. 

 This Olympian delight is rarer in the lower hills and cooler 

 climate of these islands, but is not unknown. It is exciting 

 to stand on a low coast when one of the autumnal thunder- 

 gales comes driving in from the sea with a rack of flashing 

 cloud, and a dense curtain of rain and hail pouring from its 

 lower edge. The storm races so low that there sometimes 

 seems hardly room for it to clear the houses, and though 

 this impression is exaggerated a tall church spire might be 

 well within the layer of cloud. If it is hardly yet dusk, 

 tumult and horror seize the birds in their orderly retirement 

 to their roosting- places ; gulls wail, and sweep on wide 

 erratic planes, and rooks and jackdaws tumble cackling into 

 unaccustomed cover. If night has fallen the lightning bites 

 an intense whiteness from the belt of surf, and flashes a 

 mysterious glimmer from the yellow sand-dunes. The sheen 

 of lightning on sand is almost the most unearthly of earthly 

 illuminations ; in the heart of green England a distant 

 summer thunder-storm at night turns the sandy wastes by 

 Aldershot to the likeness of a landscape in the moon. 



