MELLOW ENGLAND. 



river, trains stood still on the track and for an hour 

 and a half London lay buried beneath this sickening 

 eruption. I say eruption, because a London fog is 

 only a London smoke, tempered by a moist atmos- 

 phere. It is called " fog 99 by courtesy, but lampblack 

 is its chief ingredient. It is not wet like our fogs, but 

 quite dry, and makes the eyes smart and the nose tin- 

 gle. Whenever the sun can be seen through it, his 

 face is red and dirty ; seen through a bond fide fog his 

 face is clean and white. English coal, — or " coals n 

 as they say here, — in burning gives out an enormous 

 quantity of thick, yellowish smoke, which is at no time 

 absorbed or dissipated as it would be in our hard, dry 

 atmosphere, and which at certain times is not absorbed 

 at all, but falls down swollen and augmented by the 

 prevailing moisture. The atmosphere of the whole 

 island is more or less impregnated with smoke, even 

 on the fairest days, and it becomes more and more 

 dense as you approach the great towns. Yet this 

 compound of smut, fog, and common air is an elixir of 

 youth ; and this is one of the surprises of London, 

 to see amid so much soot and dinginess such fresh, 

 blooming complexions and in general such a fine phys- 

 ical tone and fuil-bloodedness among the people — 

 such as one has come to associate only with the best 

 air and the purest, wholesomest country influences. 

 What the secret of it may be, I am at a loss to know, 

 unless it is that the moist atmosphere does not dry up 

 the blood as our air does, and that the carbon and 



