The rapid changes of temperature in
summer and the sudden rising of vast masses of heated air produce
cloud-structures of the most imposing description, especially huge,
irregular cumulus clouds that float in equilibrium above us like
colossal icebergs, airy mountain-ranges or tottering battlemented
towers and "looming bastions fringed with fire."
Yon clouds are big with flame, and not with rain,
Massed on the marvellous heaven in splendid pyres,
Whereon ethereal genii, half in pain
And half in triumph, light their mystic fires.
The brilliant deep-blue Italian skies of the Middle and Southern States
are full of poetry, and will repay the most careful and prolonged
study. I have seen, far up in the zenith, silvery fringes of cirrus
clouds forming and melting away at the same moment and in the same
place, ethereal and evanescent as a dream, easel-studies of Nature.
Sometimes the clouds take the form of most airily-delicate brown crape,
"hatchelled" on the sky in minute lines and limnings. Now the sky looks
like a sweet silver-azure ceiling, the blue peeping here and there
through tender masses of silver frosting. The skies of the New England
coast States are filled, during a large part of spring, summer and
autumn, with a white and dreamy haze, and do not produce
cloud-phenomena on such an imposing scale as the more brilliant skies
of the interior.
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