Twenty Eli] Hollow 
May also had three wet days, yielding nine 
hours of rain, and completed the so-called 
“rainy season” for that year, which is prob- 
ably about an average one. It must be re- 
membered that this rain record has nothing to 
do with what fell in the night. 
The ordinary rainstorm of this region has 
little of that outward pomp and sublimity of 
structure so characteristic of the storms of the 
Mississippi Valley. Nevertheless, we have expe- 
rienced rainstorms out on these treeless plains, 
in nights of solid darkness, as impressively 
sublime as the noblest storms of the mountains. 
The wind, which in settled weather blows from 
the northwest, veers to the southeast; the sky 
curdles gradually and evenly to a grainless, 
seamless, homogeneous cloud; and then comes 
the rain, pouring steadily and often driven 
aslant by strong winds. In 1869, more than 
three fourths of the winter rains came from 
the southeast. One magnificent storm from 
the northwest occurred on the 21st of March; 
an immense, round-browed cloud came sail- 
[ 205 ] 
