ivitlb Special Reference to that of December 4 , 1893 . 137 
objects became nearly as visible as in ordinary daylight, was not 
accompanied or followed by any panic among the sheep. Lord 
Moreton writes from Sarsden House, Chipping Norton, of this 
meteor : — 
Several people hereabouts saw the strong light — so strorig that our keeper 
said that it was light enough to pick a pin off the ground. 
I may now say that I have little doubt that the cause of the panic 
in the sheep was not any kind of light, but simply thick darkness. 
1 believe, though I have not evidence of actual instances at hand, 
that panics which have occasionally happened amongst the horses 
and working cattle of travellers in wild countries ; to big herds be- 
ing driven down to the townships, or to the rail, in cattle countries ; 
and even to troops in hostile countries, have always happened upon 
intensely dark nights. 
Very few people, probably, have ever been out in a really dark 
night, and it is impossible for anyone who has not had this experi- 
ence to imagine what it is like. So long as you can see, in an un- 
lighted village at night, the difference between the roofs of the 
houses and the sky, or, in the open fields, the difference between the 
trees, or some line of high land and the sky, it is not a really dark 
night, and it is perfectly possible to find your way easily, and to know 
exactly where you are going if you are familiar with the country. 
But directly you cease to be able to see these differences, you speedily 
lose all sense of direction, and it is impossible to find your way. I 
have twice, and twice only, been out in nights of this description, and 
although in each case I had only a short distance to go, and was ex- 
ceedingly familiar with the ground, I had the greatest difficulty in 
getting home. In nights of this kind the sensation is that of being 
shut up in a dark room — let anyone turn round twice in a perfectly 
dark room, and try to walk straight to the door. A sensation of a 
thick Egyptian darkness is felt. Had the sheep in Oxfordshire followed 
the example of the fellaheen of former days in an Oriental accept- 
ance of destiny, and not risen from their places until the darkness 
had passed away, all might have been well. 
It is quite possible to imagine human beings even, who have 
lost their sense of direction in darkness of this kind, becoming 
nervous. Still more easy is it to imagine timid, susceptible animals 
like sheep being overcome by ungovernable terror, and then doing 
as sheep do when frightened badly, viz. rushing violently in some 
direction or other. 
That a thick darkness of this kind descended upon the earth in 
the early part of the night of December 4 (at a time agreeing with 
that at which, so far as we know, the sheep stampeded) there is 
abundant evidence to prove. 
On that evening I was being driven in the village fly to a meet- 
ing in a distant place, and was on the road from 6.15 to 7.30 p.m. ; 
then walked up the village to the schoolroom, which I reached about 
8 p.m. I only noticed that it was a still and very dark night, with 
damp, heavy atmosphere. As to the degree of darkness in the village 
