34 Wild Life in a Southern County 



produced by a variation in the electrical condition of com- 

 paratively small areas, corresponding perhaps with the 

 difference of soil — one becoming more heated than another. 

 Showers are certainly often of a remarkably local character : 

 a walk of half a mile along a road dark from recent rain 

 will frequently bring you to a place where the dust i3 

 white and thick as ever, the line of demarcation sharply 

 marked across the highway. In winter rain takes a wider 

 sweep. 



From the elevation of the earthwork on the downs — 

 with a view of mile after mile of plain and vale below — it 

 is easy on a showery summer day to observe the narrow 

 limits of the rain. Dusky streamers, like the train of a 

 vast dark robe, slope downwards from the blacker water- 

 carrying cloud above — downwards and backwards, the 

 upper cloud travelling faster than the falling drops. Be- 

 tween the hill and the rain yonder intervenes a broad 

 space of several miles, and beyond it again stretches a clear 

 opening to the horizon. The streamers sweep along a nar- 

 row strip of country which is drenched with rain, while 

 on either side the sun is shining. 



It seems reasonable to imagine that in some way that 

 strip of country acts differently for the time being upon 

 the atmosphere immediately above it. So singularly local 

 are these conditions, sometimes, that one farmer will show 

 you a flourishing crop of roots which was refreshed by a 

 heavy shower just in the nick of time, while his neighbour 

 is loudly complaining that he has had no rain. When the 

 sky is over-cast — large masses of cloud, with occasional 

 breaks, passing slowly across it at a considerable elevation 

 without rain — sometimes through these narrow slits long 

 beams of light fall aslant upon the distant fields of the 

 vale. They resemble, ouly on a greatly lengthened scale. 



