rminate the "hot spells" or "heated terms" of mid-summer.
The very oppressive and fatal one of the summer of 1853, was, in
character, a type of all--although exceeding them in severity. The first
three or four days were calm, hot, and smoky--an appearance which attends
all similar periods more or less, refracting the red ray of the light, and
giving the sun a peculiar dry-weather, red appearance. (This smoky haze is
usually atmospheric, and occasionally seen even in March, although not
unfrequently fires in the woods fill the air with actual smoke, and very
much increase it, and when this is so, the odor of the smoke is often
perceptible.) Then we began to have a fresh south-west by south breeze in
the day-time, hauling to the south-west, and dying away at nightfall. The
next day, the tendency to condensation and consequent belt of showers
having extended further south and approached nearer to us, the S. S. W.
wind blew _fresher_ toward it, and _did not die away at nightfall_. During
the evening the reflection of the lightning playing upon the tops of the
thunder clouds, just visible at the north (heat-lightning, it is termed,
because supposed to be unaccompanied by thunder, but in reality lightning
reflected from clouds at too great a distance for the thunder to be
heard), and the continuance of the southerly wind after nightfall, gave
sure evidence of the coming showers the next day, and an end of the
excessive heat for that time. So ended both of those long-to-be-remembered
"heated terms" of 1853.

The same is probably true of the interior of the country every where.
Lieutenant Maury, in the course of his investigations, and in order to
ascertain the direction of the winds in the Mississippi valley during
rain, addressed a number of gentlemen, and received their replies, which
are published with his wind and current charts. Several answered, among
other things, that, "whenever the lightning appears to linger at the north
at eventide, rain almost invariably follows speedily; not so in the
south." Thus it frequently is with us. If, during a hot, dry time, of a
few days continuance, the lightning so lingers in the evening, and the
wind continues to blow _fresh_ from the southward _after nightfall_,
showers will generally follow within forty-eight hours, most commonly the
next day, and a cool N. N. W. or N. W. wind with a favorable change ensue.
Such, at least, has been the result of my observation for many years.

Indee