316 Wild Life in a Southern County 



resembling extremely distant thunder. They were con- 

 vinced it was something ' in the air ; ' bnt I feel certain 

 it was the guns of the fleet exercising at sea. In that 

 case the sound of the explosion must have travelled ever 

 fifty miles in a direct line — supposing it to come 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, how- 

 ever, that the mischief is sometimes done by a thunder- 

 bolt. 



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