THE ANCIENT EAST

of light on the grass, which continually moves before you; it isa halo on the grass tips. I noticed this as a boy, and tried all srots
of experiments respecting it, but never metwith any mention of it in books till quite lately, in Benvenuto Cellini’s
Autobiography. He says, Thereappeared a resplenden light over my head, whivh displayed itself conspicuously to all I
have thoughtproper to show it to, but those were very few. This shining light is to be seen in the morning over shadowtill
two o’clock in the afternoon, and it appears to the greatest advantage when the grass is moist with dew; it is likewise visible in
the evening at sunset. This phenomenon I took notice of in Paris, because the air isexceedingly clear in that climate, so that I
could distinguish it there much plainer than in Italy, where mists aremuch more frequent; but I can still see it even here, and
show it to others, thougly not to the same advantage asin France. Benveuuto thought this one of the most extraordinary things
that had happened to him; andrecords it after a wonderful dream, as if it, too, were supernatural. It is, however, possible that
some eyes are so constituted as not to be able to see this phenomenon in their own case; at least, I have sometimes tried invain
to get other people to see it. I should not have noticed it had I not been about at all hours with my gun asa boy. It is much more
visible by moonlight, when the rabbits white tails go dot, dot, lightly over the grass,and you are just as likely to shoot at their
shadows as at their bodies. As the scythe of the mower mows aswathe before him, so the semicircle of light moves in front over
the dew, and the grass appears another tint,as it does after a roller has passed.In a scientific publication not long since, a letter
was published describing what the writer supposed wasindeed something extraordinary. He had seen a fragment of rainbow a
square piece, as it were by itself in the sky, some distance to one side of the sun. In provincial papers such letters mayoften be
nowwith a description of a prismatic cloud round the moon, and one day some one discovered that there were twocurrents of
air, as the clouds went in two directions. Now, it is clear enough that none of these writers had everbeen out with a gun or a
rod; I mean out all day, and out in the full sense of the phrase. They had read booksof science; from their language they were
thotoughly educated, and felt a deep interest in natural phenomena. Yet what a marvel was here made out of the commonest
incidents of the sky Halos about the sun happencontinually; the prismatic band or cloud about the moon is common; so is the
detached rainbow; as for the twocurrents of air, the clouds often travel in three directions, occasionally in These incidents are
no moresurprising to a sportsman than the sunset. I saw them, as a boy, almost day by day, and recorded the meteorsin the
evening. It seems to me that I used to see scores of meteors of various degrees of brightness. Once the path, the woods, the fields,
and the distant hills were lit as if with a gigantic electric light; I was so interestedin tracing the well known scene so suddenly
made apparent in the darkness that it was not for some seconds Ithought of looking for the bolide, but even then I was in time
to see it declining just before extinction. Otherswho have been out with their guns have, of course, seen exactly the same
things; I do not mentio them toclaim for myself any special powers of observation, but as instances of the way in which sport
brings one incontact with nature. Other sportsmen, too, must have smiled at the marvel made of such appearances by
cleverand well educated, but indoor, people. This very spring as I walked about a town in the evening, I used to listen to find if
I could hear anyone mention the zodiacal light, which, just after sunset, was distinctly visible foe a fortnight at a time. It
wasmore then usually distinct, a perfect cone, reaching far up into the sky among the western stars. No oneseemed to observe
it, though it faced them evening after evening. Here was an instance in the oppositedirection a curious phenomenon, even now
rather the subject of hypothesis than of demonstration, entirelyoverlooked. The common phenomenon made a marvel, and the
unexplained phenomenon unnoticed. Both in the eyes of a thoughtful person are equally wonderful; but that point of view is
apart from my present object,which is to show that sport trains the eye. As a boy, roving about the hedges with my gun, it was
my especialdelight to see Mercury, because one of the great astronomers had never seen that planet, and because in all
thebooks it was stated as difficult to see. The planet was favourably situated, and I used to see it constantly aftersunset then,
pale, and but just outside the sunset glow, only a little way above the distant hills. Now it iscurious, so remark in passing, that
as the sun sets behind a hill the slope of the hill towards you is oftenobscured by his light. It appears a luminous misty surface,
rosy tinted, and this luminous mist hides the treesupon it, so that the slope is apparently nothing but a broad sweep of colour;
while those hills opposite the sun,even if twice as distant, are so clearly defined that the smallest object is evident upon them.
Sometimes,instead of the mist on the western hill, there is a blood like purple almost startling in its glory of light. There have
been few things I have read of, or studied, which in some manner or other I have not seenillustrated in this country while out
in the fields. It is said that in the Far West, on the level prairies, when thesnow covers them, you see miles and miles away, a
waggon stopping; you hurry on, and in half a day’sjourney overtake it, to find the skull of an ox so greatly has distance and
the mirage of the snow magnified itsapparent size. But a few days since I saw some rooks on the telegraph wires against a
bright sky, but as Iapproched they flew and resolved into starlings, so much had the brilliant light deceived me. A

CHAPTER 1333