Burns ide. 83 



lightning lit tip the woods, and the thunder rolled and rever- 

 berated among the mountains. The scene was one of vivid 

 brilliancy and grandeur. One does not rightly appreciate 

 thunder until one hears it among the mountains, where it 

 echoes and re-echoes in never-ending peals. The surround- 

 ings of a mountain district make a terrific storm really 

 grand, although a certain amount of shelter is necessary 

 before one is in a position properly to appreciate it. A 

 sudden approach of two clouds, an increased amount of dark- 

 ness, to be felt rather than recognised, and then a brilliant 

 flash before our eyes startles us. One, two, three, four, five 

 seconds, and then a low rumbling, breaking into a long-con- 

 tinued roar, which heightens into a terrific crash, falls upon 

 the ear. The thunder really began at the same moment as 

 the flash, and if one were unfortunate enough to be within a 

 few yards of an electrical discharge, one would hear the 

 thunder at the same instant that he was blinded by the 

 flash. But sound travels more slowly than light, its rate 

 being about 1,100 feet in a second, whilst light travels about 

 186,600 miles in the same time. The flash was seen by iis 

 then at the instant of its production, whilst as the thunder 

 did not reach our ears till five seconds later, the discharge 

 must have taken place a little more than a mile away. 



But enough of yesterday and its storm. We keep to the 

 road, which ascends rather rapidly. Passing Hell's Glen we 

 see to our left a pretty waterfall, too far off to admire in 

 detail, but forming a very beautiful picture at this distance. 

 The foaming cataract precipitates itself over a rocky cliff,' 

 and afterwards expands into a broad burn, which joins the 

 large one running along the bottom of the wooded gorge on the 

 western side of the road. The noise from the smaller burn is 



