Gbe <$reat Clout) Drive. 181 



tions ; and the local weather-prophets will tell you 

 beforehand when the shower is "going around," 

 and when " we are going to catch it." 



There is a range of mountains south-west of us 

 along whose line there is one great channel for the 

 shower-clouds ; and those that form to the north 

 take an entirely different trend. There seems to be 

 a sort of cloud-shed which divides these two sys- 

 tems, and turns part of them down into Connecticut 

 and another part eastward toward Boston. But the 

 other day, the clouds seemed to strike some sort of 

 a snag which scattered and utterly dispersed one or 

 two very portentous-looking squalls. A cloud no 

 bigger than a man's hand had grown into a dense, 

 dark storm, heavily marked by the lines of falling 

 rain and seamed by vivid lightnings. It came roll- 

 ing down toward our plain as if it were going to 

 belch wind, rain, and hail upon us ; and we all scur- 

 ried to shelter as fast as we could. But when the 

 wrack reached the line of hills which marks the 

 channel for east-bound showers, it was turned off 

 its course as sharply as if it had struck a jutting 

 wall of rock. One splinter of the storm flew off in 

 our direction, bringing a puff of wind, a dash of rain- 

 drops, and one or two feeble lightning flashes. But 

 the bulk of it went helplessly down the regular chan- 

 nel to the east. 



There never was another such season for the 

 study of cloud colours. The chromatic effects of 

 the great cloud drive have been simply endless in 



