no THE BIOLOGY OF THE SEASONS 



transpiration, the labourers have lain down in the shade 

 of the hedge, and there is scarcely a sound save for the 

 grasshoppers, whose interrupted chirping makes us feel the 

 vast background of silence. Doubtless our own sleepiness 

 exaggerates the impression ; but when even the leaves sink 

 into " sleep," saving themselves from too great loss of 

 water, few living things are likely to be wakeful. In 

 fact, what we experience even in this country is a sugges- 

 tion of the Summer slumbers or aestivation of mud-fishes, 

 amphibians, and crocodiles, when the waters dry up in 

 the pools of tropical countries. It is interesting to corro- 

 borate this impression by visiting certain kinds of shore 

 pools in the heat of the day when there is a stillness like 

 that of an Eastern city in siesta, and in the morning or after- 

 noon when there is all the activity of a Donnybrook Fair. 



There is another phenomenon that has often impressed 

 us on a bright and breezy Summer day the sudden 

 appearance of a dark cloud, which, though heavy with 

 dust and rain, drifts rapidly across the sky. We can 

 follow its shadow as it sweeps over the fields and the firth ; 

 and as it blots out the sun from us for a few long seconds, 

 we feel a shiver of suspense. Of course this is mere 

 sentimentalism, but the precise physiology of the shiver 

 might be interesting, for instance in its illustration of the 

 connection between emotion and muscular movements. 

 At all events we take this cloud, no bigger than a man's 

 hand, as a symbol ; it is the external counterpart of the 

 tear which comes sometime to all of us to blot out God's 

 sun. Its shadow is Death's. 



For in the midst of all the wealth and virility of life, 

 all the bustle and gaiety of Summer days, he with the 

 ever-harvesting sickle walks with swift feet. He mingles 

 with the haymakers, and one is carried senseless off the 

 field ; he troubles the waters of the seaside town, and the 



