The Hills '■draw' the Thunder 33 



by cloudy vapour resting on it and assuming its contour ; 

 but the illusion was not so perfect, because seen from a 

 more open spot, allowing an extended view of the range, 

 and because the cloud was lighter in colour than the hill to 

 which it clung. 



These clouds were, of course, passing at a very low 

 elevation above the earth ; in rainy weather, although but 

 a few hundred feet high, the ridges are frequently obscured 

 with cloud. The old folk in the vale, whose whole lives 

 have been spent watching and waiting on the weather, say 

 that the hills ' draw ' the thunder — that wherever a storm 

 arises it always ' draws ' towards them. If it comes from 

 the west it often splits — one storm going along the ridgea 

 to the south, and the other passing over detached hills to 

 the northward ; so that the basin between is rarely visited 

 by thunder overhead. They have, too, an old superstition 

 — based, apparently, on a text of the Bible — that the 

 thunder always rises originally in the north, though it may 

 reach them from a different direction. For it is their 

 belief also that thunder ' works round ; ' so that after a 

 heavy storm, say in the afternoon, when the air has cleared 

 to all appearance, they will tell you that the sunshine and 

 calm are a deception. In a few hours' time, or in the 

 course of the night, the storm will return, having ' worked 

 round : ' and indeed in that locality this is very often the 

 case. It is to be observed that even a small copse will for 

 a short distance in its rear quite divert the course of a 

 breeze ; so that a weathercock placed on the leeside is 

 entirely untrustworthy : if the wind really blows from the 

 south and over the copse, the weathercock will sometimes 

 point in precisely the opposite direction, obeying the 

 ' undertow ' of the gale, as it were, drawing backwards. 



In summer especially, I fancy, an effect is sometimes 



D 



