Thunder splitting Trees. 387 
and I thought at the time that that might have 
attracted the cloud. The field quite ran with water, 
as if suddenly irrigated, but the space thus flooded 
was of small area—about an acre. 
The haymakers sometimes talk of mysterious 
noises heard in the very finest weather, when it is 
still and calm, resembling extremely distant thunder. 
They were convinced it was something ‘in the air ;’ 
but I feel certain it was the guns of the fleet exer- 
cising at sea. In that case the sound of the explosion 
must have travelled over fifty miles in a direct line 
—supposing it tocome from the neighbourhood of the 
nearest naval station. I have found by observation 
that thunder cannot be heard nearly so far as the 
sound of cannon. I doubt whether it is often heard 
more than ten miles. Some of the old cottage folk 
are still positive that it is not the lightning but the 
thunder that splits the trees; they ask if a great noise 
does not make the windows rattle, and want to know 
whether a still greater one may not rive an oak. 
They allow, however, that the mischief is sometimes 
done by a thunder-bolt. 
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