LIGHTNING AND THUNDER. 133 



sunbeams ; and that that which gleams and strikes, 

 and makes air strike against air with as loud a 

 sound as if rock were dashed against rock, or 

 mountain against mountain, is nothing more than 

 the red light, and the heating and oxydizing rays 

 of the sun, collected by the minute drops of water, 

 and tempered by one of those curious processes 

 in Nature's chemistry which human skill jcannot 

 imitate. 



The subject is one upon which it is altogether 

 impossible to have experimental information ; but 

 as thunder and lightning are among the most 

 striking, and, according to circumstances, among 

 the most sublime, and even the most terrific of 

 natural appearances, it is altogether impossible to 

 observe nature without speculating about them ; 

 besides, the countries where there is the greatest 

 heat and the warmest seasons, are those in which 

 there is most thunder. Thunder-storms are also 

 most violent, or rather one should say grandest, 

 when the clouds are formed in an atmosphere 

 which has for a considerable time previously 

 been dry as well as warm. We see that in our own 

 country. We have often violent thunder storms, 

 with showers of very short duration, and very local 

 and limited in their range ; we have also thunder 

 storms at the commencement of broken and rainy 

 weather ; but when the rain fairly sets in, and ex- 

 tends over a large tract of country, it lightens and 

 thunders no more. In tropical countries, where 

 there are seasonal winds, or monsoons, some dry 

 from the land, and others moist from the sea, the 

 lightning and thunder at the commencement of 

 the rainy monsoon are often, and indeed gene- 

 rally, absolutely terrific. When the south-west 



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