Supposing it were possible for an observer to occupy a position immediately below a cloud, and close enough to see all that was taking place, he would notice raindrops of all sizes leaping from the under side of the cloud and plunging toward the earth. The simplest experiment to get some idea concerning the variation in raindrops is to expose an ordinary slate for a few minutes during a shower of rain, and it will be seen by the different-shaped blotches on the slate that, although the raindrops have all made a similar journey, they have, nevertheless, contrived to acquire an individuality during their downward passage. That the raindrops are round admits of a very simple explanation. They are this shape owing to the action of capillarity, which in the case of the raindrop acts equally in all directions. In many parts of the world the very curious phenomenon of colored rain sometimes occurs, and in many instances it is due to very simple causes. In some cases the coloring matter is found to be nothing but the pollen-dust shaken out of the flowers on certain trees at such times as a strong wind happened to be blowing over them. Fir trees and cypress trees, when grouped together in large forests, at certain seasons of the year give off enormous quantities of pollen, and this vegetable dust is often carried many miles through the atmosphere by the wind, and frequently falls to earth during a shower of rain. The microscope clearly reveals the origin of such colored rain, which has on more than one occasion puzzled and mystified the inexperienced. Pollen is, therefore, very largely responsible for the reports sent from different parts of the world of golden, black, and red rain. Fish and insects also descend to earth during showers of rain; but since it is probable that these and other unwonted visitors to the atmosphere were originally drawn up into the air during the passage across the country of a whirling storm, with powerfully ascending currents of air, there is no need to look for any far-fetched explanation of what, after all, is a very simple occurrence.