216 HALCYON DAYS. 



When the thunder-storm is followed by fine 

 weather, it is said, in common language, that " the 

 thunder clears the air;" but though the fine weather 

 follows the thunder, it is no more the cause of that 

 fine weather than the battle in which one party is 

 vanquished is the cause of peace. The thunder is 

 the battle, the resistance made by the bad weather 

 in opposing the good ; and the good weather takes 

 possession of the atmosphere only after it has van- 

 quished and driven off the bad. 



When the bad weather invades any place -In a 

 thunder-storm, the appearance is often very grand. 

 The wind may have been blowing steadily from the 

 same point for weeks ; and some peculiarly bright 

 day (for the first sign of an invasion of the horizon 

 is commonly unusual brightness) the wind may keep 

 its point all the morning, till about twelve o'clock, 

 without a particle of curl-cloud, or any one suspi- 

 cious appearance, save the unusual fineness of the 

 day and purity of the air. Now although those 

 treacherous days were known and named " halcyon 

 days," by the ancients, and are still well known to 

 the northern fishermen by the name of "weather 

 gaas" that is, worn, weak, or cracked parts of the 

 weather, yet they are not much heeded by ordinary 

 observers. Well, about twelve or one, on one of 

 these days, when it is delightfully clear, and at the 

 same time most intensely hot, in consequence of 

 there being no evaporation to cool the air ; and 

 when, in consequence of there being no evaporation, 

 the leaves do not languish, as they do in a dry atmo- 

 sphere ; a little cloud, with an edge as well defined 

 as if it were a perfect solid, makes its appearance 

 in the point of the horizon just opposite to the wind. 

 If it happen to be in the point opposite the sun too, 

 and in some places it is generally from that point, it 

 is at first as white as snow, and might pass for the 

 summit of a distant snowy ridge. There is no light 

 cloud strewing before it, as there generally is in the 



