226 THE THUNDER-STORM. 



flashes of lightning are fewer than if partial dis- 

 charges took place. When the discharges from 

 an equal accumulation of cloud are partial, there is 

 little action between the different strata of the 

 cloud, until there has been action between the 

 lower stratum and the earth ; and in those cases 

 each stratum of cloud descends and thunders to 

 the earth. At such times, the curlings of the 

 different parts of the cloud are very striking, for 

 they are so dense that they all seem solid, and as 

 there is ah* between them, the openings appear to 

 penetrate many miles into the' sky, and yet it may 

 happen that the most distant cloud is the blackest ; 

 as the lower ones, that have discharged their 

 thunder, are melting in rain, and as they then 

 allow a passage to the red light, the lower sky is 

 exceedingly murky. The fall of the rain is often 

 as fantastical. After each peal, which reverberates 

 as if a stone arch were rattling down in pieces, the 

 rain falls with the headlong rush of water when 

 it bursts its barrier; but the rain is often over 

 before the last echo of the thunder-clap has ceased. 

 Yet the silence and cessation of rain are of very 

 short duration ; for it is barely fair, when another 

 black mass descends, discharges its thunder, and 

 lets fall its rain ; and that is succeeded by another, 

 and another, till the whole cloud is exhausted. 

 Sometimes those splendid clouds sail majestically 

 over without disturbing the atmosphere through 

 which they pass ; but when they do break, there 

 are no atmospheric phenomena so sublime, or that 

 embody so much of varied information in so short a 

 time. The impressiveness of thunder storms ren- 

 ders them among the best studies for beginners in 

 the observation of nature. There is often a sul- 



