32 THP: HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 



seems to precede. There is the "Storm Centre," the often invisible 

 (to the eye) "focus of energy." 



To illustrate the practical phase which perhaps may be claimed 

 for such fantasies, the following notes and jottings may seem perti- 

 nent : — 



On Monday, the 19th of Debember last, we had extreme fros^t, 

 a clouded sky with north-easterly winds, when some woodcutteis 

 accosted the writer of this with questions as to the purport of pecu- 

 liarities in the changes of level of the water in a small frozen-over 

 rivulet near to where the two men had been working all day. On 

 chopping through the 3-inch thick ice the water was observed at 

 fiist to sink or recede two or three inches, so the men asserted, but 

 soon afterwards more than regained the normal level, and in an 

 hour or two overflowed the ice to the depth of an inch or more and 

 remained at the level. Probably this indicated changes and pertur- 

 bation in the elasticity of the atmosphere, but there was no barome- 

 trical instrument near to consult, However, we in the course of the 

 confab alluded to the traditional belief of farmers that a sudden rise 

 in springs of water or of spring-fed rivulets invariably betokened 

 storms to be near at hand. 



In the present case in a few hours there was a big rise of 

 temperature and distant thunder was said to be heard. On the 20th 

 December my diary records southerly winds and a foggy atmosphere 

 and a general thaw setting in. The thick ice on ponds and rivers 

 moans and upheaves and cracks, probably in response to the removal 

 or lessening of atmospheric pressure on the upper surface of the ice, 

 and it is often brought to the notice of foresters that after a spell of 

 severe frosty weather and before there are any prominent indications 

 of change the boles of large trees may be heard to give out loud 

 snapping sounds, many of them resembling the explosion of a pistol 

 or air gun, and which they really represent. This phenomenon 

 must have an electric cause, as there is no abatement of the frost 

 and usually a clear evening sky with strong radiation in the crystal 

 clear air. Decided weather changes almost invariably follow these 

 sylvan sounds (explosive). This list of incidents might be extended, 



" Eterne alternation 

 Now follows, now flits," 



