Effects of Heat. 19 
they become distinct ; each line is drawn clearly and 
stands out; the definition is like that which occurs 
before rain, only without the illusion of nearness. 
But the hot wind blows and the rain does not 
come: the sky is open and free from clouds, less blue 
perhaps, but harder in tint. The nights are bright 
and clear and warm; you may sit here on the turf 
till midnight and find no dew, and still feel the lan- 
guid, enervating influence of the hot blast. This goes 
in time, and is succeeded by heavy morning mists 
hanging like a cloak over the hills and filling up the 
hollows. They roll away as the day advances, and 
there is the sun bright as ever in the midst of the 
cloudless sky. The shepherds say the mists carry 
away the rain ; certainly it does not come. 
Every now and then promising signs exhibit 
themselves. A black bank of vapour receives the 
setting sun, and in the east huge mountainous clouds 
with beetling precipices and caverns, in which surely 
the thunder lurks, swell and roll upwards in the hush 
of the evening. The farmer unrolls his canvas over 
the new-made hayrick, which is not yet thatched, 
thinking that a torrent wili descend in the night ; but 
no, the morrow is the same. Itis a peculiarity of our 
usually changeable climate that when once the 
weather has become thoroughly settled either to dry 
or wet, no signs of alteration are of any value, true 
as they may be at other times. 
So the heat continues and the drought increases, 
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