The cold gray rains of early spring, which frequently turn to ice in falling, and sheathe the branches of trees with a glittering coat of icy mail, change in character as spring and the warmer weather advances.
The mid-summer thundershower is still another type, and an impressive one. When all nature lies gasping and parched under the withering heat of a torrid sun, when the pebbly beds of the little streams are brown and dry, and the thirsty cattle low plaintively in the sun-scorched pastures, then suddenly, the south winds send a long-drawn, whispering sigh through the motionless tree-tops; the poplar leaves begin to tremble and toss, and faster and faster the thunder heads begin to roll up and assemble, and rush together, with low ominous mutterings.
The clouds, coppery-hued and black, and full of menace, hang low, and almost seem to touch the hills, rising winds chase each other and catch up stray dead leaves and débris, sending them whirling and dancing in fantastic eddies; while the startled swallows wheel low before the rushing, mighty tumult of the approaching storm.
145. Another example of Columnar ice. Formation like vegetable roots
146. Columnar ice, found under peaty soil
147. Columnar ice, section shown in detail, largely magnified
Nothing can compare in grandeur, to the marshalling of Nature’s forces together and the raging fury of a great thunder-storm. Truly the roar of the thunder may well be likened to Heaven’s artillery, and no pyrotechnic display ever equals that which the jagged, forked lightning creates amid the inky, ominous clouds of the heavens. And then the finale; the low, distant, retreating growls of the passing thunder, the gradual lifting of the clouds, and then like magic, their leaden, ominous curtains are swept aside, and the happy sunshine is with us again, and the earth, refreshed and purified by the grateful shower, gasps no more in the throes of heat.