Remarks on Indian Summers. 11 



der gusts cease. The earth's surface soon absorbs all the rain which 

 has fallen, the atmosphere is neither hot nor cold, it also soon be- 

 comes dry, and Indian summer commences. This leads us to differ 

 with the writer of the article on Indian summer, in another view 

 which he takes of the subject, viz : He s-ays, " one of the most re- 

 markable phenomena of Indian summer, is the peculiar redness of 

 the sky, &c." So it is — ^but how does he account for it? He 

 speaks of " the foggy stratum near the earth's surface." Does fog 

 in May or June, when it is much more prevalent than in Novem- 

 ber, produce that redness of the sky, so peculiar to Indian summer? 

 Here it certainly does not, and we suspect not about Baltimore. 

 Besides, according to our experience, the atmosphere is remarkably 

 dry during Indian summer. We have never kept a hygrometer, but 

 have remarked that whenever a rain falls, this smoky aspect of the 

 atmosphere soon disappears, which it should not do, if it depended 

 on fog or vapor. Again he says, *' this redness of the air together 

 with the mechanical irritation produced by the denseness of the ae- 

 rial vapor, excites a painful affection of the eyes." This does not 

 accord vi^ith our experience. We know that inflammation of the 

 eyes is very common in the west, particularly during Indian sum- 

 mer. We know it by sad experience ourselves, and by many hun- 

 dred cases which we have treated. But we have always found that 

 pure aerial vapor, and even dense fog, so far from producing inflam- 

 mation of the eyes, was congenial to, arid always relieved those, pa- 

 tients affected with it. The real cause, in our opinion, of the smoky 

 appearance of the atmosphere, and the painful affection of the eyes, 

 is what the writer calls an " optical illusion." That is, by the 

 " burning of the decidua which are collected together in the fall 

 season," and " the firing of the neighboring forests." We do not 

 mean to be understood that the burning of the forests, prairies, he. 

 is the cause of Indian summer, but a consequence of it, and the 

 smoky appearance of the atmosphere is caused by it. Now we 

 come to speak of the real cause of Indian summer. Or rather, to 

 state the facts as they occur, according to our observation, and give 

 such explanations as seem to us rational. We have before said 

 that during the summer months, the earth becomes dry and the 

 atmosphere is surcharged with vapor, the former being often the 

 negative, and the latter the positive conductor of electricity, &c. 

 Hence the frequent occurrence of thunder gusts. But these thunder 

 gusts do not fully restore the equilibrium, either of electricity or 



