Twenty Hill Hollow 



May also had three wet days, yielding nine 

 hours of rain, and completed the so-called 

 "rainy season'' for that year, which is prob- 

 ably about an average one. It must be re- 

 membered that this rain record has nothing to 

 do with what fell in the night. 



The ordinary rainstorm of this region has 

 little of that outward pomp and sublimity of 

 structure so characteristic of the storms of the 

 Mississippi Valley. Nevertheless, we have expe- 

 rienced rainstorms out on these treeless plains, 

 in nights of solid darkness, as impressively 

 sublime as the noblest storms of the mountains. 

 The wind, which in settled weather blows from 

 the northwest, veers to the southeast; the sky 

 curdles gradually and evenly to a grainless, 

 seamless, homogeneous cloud; and then comes 

 the rain, pouring steadily and often driven 

 aslant by strong winds. In 1869, more than 

 three fourths of the winter rains came from 

 the southeast. One magnificent storm from 

 the northwest occurred on the 21st of March; 

 an immense, round-browed cloud came sail- 



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