The second cause was that which has dealt so severe
a blow to our own agriculture—the drought. That " Act of Cod." as the Insurers would call it, has left its mark upon all Europe, but mostly on Russia. Such crops as have come up under the perpetual blaze of a sun which in parts of European Russia shines, at this time of the year, for eighteen hours in the twenty-four have in many cases been destroyed by fire. The want of rain has made it easy not only for aocideatal but for wilfal firing of the fields. When men are maddened by misery and hopeless of relief, there seems to be a natural reaction towards burning. There is an awful sense of stimulation in flames that leap into the air and in the dread swish of their onrush. Some Titanic mower seems at work in the rosy heart of the conflagration.
