In the narrow belt called the variables, between the regions of the north and south trade-winds, rain is almost incessant, accompanied by thunder and lightning. In many parts of the intertropical regions during the rainy season the rain pours down in such torrents that a larger quantity falls in a few hours than in a whole month in temperate North America.
TRAVELERS GROUPED ON THE SANDS OF THE SAHARA, TERRORIZED BY AN APPROACHING SIMOON
The dreaded Simoon of the desert is a whirlwind of terrific force that raises great gyrating clouds of sand, and sweeps forward with suffocating effect upon both man and beasts. It frequently darkens the sky at midday, and sometimes lightning accompanies it caused by the friction of the sand and air, though no rain falls. The Simoon seldom lasts more than twenty minutes.
NATURE WONDERS OF ELECTRICITY AND LIGHT
Electricity produces an infinity of changes in the natural world. It may be artificially elicited or called forth by friction; or by contact of certain substances and the action attendant on this contact. In the one case it is termed ordinary, and in the other case voltaic or galvanic electricity.
All substances are supposed to contain a certain portion of electricity, and if by friction or other means any substance acquires more electrical action than it would naturally possess, it is said to be positively electrified; and if less, it is said to be negatively electrified. Substances when positively electrified attract or draw toward them other substances which are in a state of negative electricity, or even those which are in a natural state, but will repel or force from them substances which are positively electrified. The sudden contact of bodies in an opposite state of electricity is attended with vivid light called the “electric spark,” and accompanied by explosion and shock.