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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Rain Cloud, by Anonymous
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Rain Cloud
+       or, An Account of the Nature, Properties, Dangers and Uses of Rain
+
+
+Author: Anonymous
+
+
+
+Release Date: December 18, 2009  [eBook #30706]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE RAIN CLOUD***
+
+
+Transcribed from the 1846 Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge
+edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
+
+
+
+
+
+                                   THE
+                               RAIN CLOUD:
+
+
+                                   OR,
+                                An Account
+                                    OF
+                     THE NATURE, PROPERTIES, DANGERS,
+                            AND USES OF RAIN,
+
+                      IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE WORLD.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                     PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF
+            THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION
+                  APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING
+                           CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+                                 LONDON:
+                             Printed for the
+                SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.
+                         SOLD AT THE DEPOSITORY,
+                GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS,
+                          AND 4, ROYAL EXCHANGE.
+
+                                  1846.
+
+                                 LONDON:
+                   R. CLAY, PRINTER, BREAD STREET HILL.
+
+                                CONTENTS.
+
+                              CHAPTER I.
+                                p. 10.
+RAINS PECULIAR TO EACH SEASON--SPRING SHOWERS--MIDSUMMER RAINS--RAINS
+OF AUTUMN AND WINTER--MEANS OF SUPPLYING THE EARTH WITH RAIN--RAIN
+CLOUDS--DECEPTIVE APPEARANCES OF CLOUDS--THEIR LIGHT AND
+SHADE--EFFECTS OF CLOUDS IN MOUNTAINOUS COUNTRIES--ASCENT OF MONTE
+PIENTIO--ASCENT TO THE PEAK OF TENERIFFE--GRAND EFFECTS OF CLOUDS IN
+THE PYRENEES--VOYAGE IN A BALLOON THROUGH THE CLOUDS.
+                              CHAPTER II.
+                                p. 37.
+EFFECTS OF RAIN IN MOUNTAINOUS DISTRICTS--THE DISTRICT OF MORAY--THE
+GREAT FLOODS OF 1829--COMMENCEMENT OF THE RAIN--THE SWOLLEN
+RIVERS--DISASTROUS EFFECTS OF THE FLOOD--MEANS ADOPTED FOR THE RESCUE
+OF COTTAGERS--KERR AND HIS BRAVE DELIVERERS--RESCUE OF FUNNS AND HIS
+FAMILY--FLOODS OF THE RHONE IN 1840--OVERFLOWING OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
+                             CHAPTER III.
+                                p. 74.
+VARIOUS FORMS OF CLOUDS--THE CIRRUS, OR CURL-CLOUD--THE CUMULUS, OR
+STACKEN-CLOUD--THE STRATUS, OR FALL-CLOUD--THE CIRRO-CUMULUS, OR
+SONDER-CLOUD--THE CIRRO-STRATUS, OR WANE-CLOUD--THE CUMULO-STRATUS, OR
+TWAIN-CLOUD--THE NIMBUS, OR RAIN-CLOUD--ARRANGEMENT OF
+RAIN-CLOUDS--APPEARANCES OF A DISTANT SHOWER--SCUD--CAUSE OF
+RAIN--FORMATION OF CLOUDS--MISTS--HEIGHTS OF CLOUDS--APPEARANCE OF THE
+SKY ABOVE THE CLOUDS.
+                              CHAPTER IV.
+                                p. 107.
+ON HAIL--THE HAIL-STORMS OF FRANCE--THE DISASTROUS EFFECTS OF
+HAIL--THE HAIL-STORMS OF SOUTH AMERICA--THEIR SURPRISING
+EFFECTS--ORIGIN AND NATURE OF HAIL--PERIODICAL FALLS OF HAIL--HAIL
+CLOUDS--HAILSTONES--THEIR VARIOUS FORMS--EXTRAORDINARY SIZE OF
+HAILSTONES.
+                              CHAPTER V.
+                                p. 117.
+METHOD OF MEASURING THE QUANTITY OF RAIN THAT FALLS--THE RAIN
+GAUGE--METHODS OF OBSERVING FOR RAIN AND SNOW--EFFECTS OF ELEVATION ON
+THE QUANTITY OF RAIN--DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TOP OF A TALL BUILDING
+AND THE SUMMIT OF A MOUNTAIN--SIZE OF DROPS OF RAIN--VELOCITY OF THEIR
+FALL--QUANTITY OF RAIN IN DIFFERENT LATITUDES--EXTRAORDINARY FALLS OF
+RAIN--REMARKS ON THE RAIN OF THIS COUNTRY--INFLUENCE OF THE
+MOON--ABSENCE OF RAIN--REMARKABLE DROUGHT IN SOUTH AMERICA--ITS
+TERRIBLE EFFECTS AND CONSEQUENCES--ARTIFICIAL RAINS.
+                              CHAPTER VI.
+                                p. 137.
+THE RAINBOW--DECOMPOSITION OF WHITE LIGHT BY THE PRISM--FORMATION OF
+PRIMARY AND SECONDARY BOWS--RAINBOWS IN MOUNTAIN REGIONS--THE RAINBOW
+A SACRED EMBLEM--LUNAR RAINBOW--LIGHT DECOMPOSED BY CLOUDS--THEIR
+BEAUTIFUL COLOURS--EXAMPLES.
+                             CHAPTER VII.
+                                p. 157.
+REMARKABLE SHOWERS--SHOWERS OF SAND--OF MUD--SHOWERS OF SULPHUR, OR
+YELLOW RAIN--LUMINOUS RAIN--RED RAIN, OR SHOWERS OF
+BLOOD--SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED THEREWITH--EXPLANATION OF THE
+CAUSE--SHOWERS OF FISH--SHOWERS OF RATS--SHOWERS OF FROGS--INSECT
+SHOWER--SHOWERS OF VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES--MANNA--WHEAT--SHOWERS OF
+STONES--METEORIC STONES, OR AEROLITES--METEORIC IRON--SUPPOSITIONS
+RESPECTING THEM--FOSSIL RAIN.
+                             CHAPTER VIII.
+                                p. 191.
+COMMON SAYINGS RESPECTING THE WEATHER--SAINT SWITHIN'S-DAY--SIGNS OF
+RAIN OR OF FAIR WEATHER DERIVED FROM THE APPEARANCE OF THE SUN--FROM
+THAT OF THE MOON--FROM THE STARS--FROM THE SKY--FROM THE DISTINCTNESS
+OF SOUNDS--FROM THE RISING OF SMOKE--FROM THE PECULIAR ACTIONS OF
+PLANTS AND ANIMALS--PROGNOSTICS NOTICED BY SIR HUMPHREY DAVY--SIGNS OF
+RAIN COLLECTED BY DR. JENNER--NORTH AMERICAN RAIN-MAKERS--INCIDENT
+RELATED BY CATLIN--RAIN-DOCTORS OF SOUTHERN AFRICA--RAIN-DOCTORS OF
+CEYLON--SUPERSTITIONS GIVING WAY TO THE TEACHING OF
+MISSIONARIES--CONCLUSION.
+
+                  [Picture: Clouds among the mountains]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I:
+
+
+RAINS PECULIAR TO EACH SEASON--SPRING SHOWERS--MIDSUMMER RAINS--RAINS OF
+AUTUMN AND WINTER--MEANS OF SUPPLYING THE EARTH WITH
+RAIN--RAIN-CLOUDS--DECEPTIVE APPEARANCES OF CLOUDS--THEIR LIGHT AND
+SHADE--EFFECTS OF CLOUDS IN MOUNTAINOUS COUNTRIES--ASCENT OF MONTE
+PIENTIO--ASCENT TO THE PEAK OF TENERIFFE--GRAND EFFECTS OF CLOUDS IN THE
+PYRENEES--VOYAGE IN A BALLOON THROUGH THE CLOUDS.
+
+Every season has its own peculiar rains.  What can be more refreshing or
+invigorating than the showers of spring?  When the snows of February have
+disappeared, and the blustering winds of March have performed their
+office of drying up the excess of moisture, and preparing the earth for
+fruitfulness, and when the young buds and blossoms of April are peeping
+forth beneath the influence of the sun, and the trees and hedges are
+attired in their new robes of tender green, how soon would all this
+beauty languish but for the showers of spring!  Several dry days,
+perhaps, have passed, and the wreaths of dust which are raised by the
+wind show that the earth wants moisture; but before a drop falls there is
+a general lull throughout all nature; not a leaf is heard to rustle; the
+birds are mute and the cattle stand in expectation of the refreshing
+fall.  At last the pools and rivulets are "dimpled" by a few soft drops,
+the forerunners of the general shower.  And this shower, unlike the
+heavier rains of summer, comes stealing on so gently, that the tinkling
+sound of its fall is heard among the branches of the bursting trees long
+before it is felt by those who walk beneath their slight shelter.
+Rapidly does the landscape brighten under the influence of the welcome
+shower; and as it becomes more rich and extensive, all nature seems to
+rise up and rejoice.  The birds chirp merrily among the foliage; the
+flowers raise their drooping heads, and the thirsty ground drinks in with
+eager haste the mellowing rains.  All day long, perhaps, does the rain
+continue to fall, until the earth is fully moistened and "enriched with
+vegetable life."  At length, towards evening, the sun peeps out from
+among the broken clouds, and lights up, by his sudden radiance, the
+lovely scene.  Myriads of rain-drops sparkle like gems beneath his beams;
+a soft mist that seems to mingle earth and sky gradually rolls away, and
+"moist, and bright, and green, the landscape laughs around."  Now pours
+forth the evening concert from the woods, while warbling brooks, and
+lowing herds, appear to answer to the sound.  Such are some of the
+delightful effects of spring-showers.
+
+In summer, when the heat has been very great, the rain is often ushered
+in by a thunder-storm, and falls in torrents, which at an earlier season
+would do harm to the young buds and blossoms of spring; but now the
+vegetation is strong enough to resist the floods so necessary to maintain
+moisture in the parched earth.  But when the summer has been moderately
+warm some gentle rains generally fall about midsummer, which, from the
+frequency of their occurrence about this time, have obtained the name of
+"Midsummer rains."  These rains are popularly associated with St.
+Swithin's Day, as will be noticed in another chapter; but when they fall
+early, mildly, and in moderate quantity, they operate to a certain extent
+as a second spring.  "Many of the birds come into song and have second
+broods; and it is probable that there is a fresh production of
+caterpillars for their food, or, at all events, a larger production of
+the late ones than when the rains are more violent and protracted.  Many
+of the herbaceous plants also bloom anew, and the autumn is long and
+pleasant, and has very many of the charms of a summer, though without any
+very powerful operation on the productions of nature, further than a very
+excellent preparation for the coming year, whether in buds, in roots, or
+in the labours of man.  Such a season is also one of plenty, or at all
+events of excellent quality in all the productions of the soil.  The wild
+animals partake in the general abundance, as that food which is left for
+them in the fields, after man has gathered in his share, is both more
+abundant and more nourishing.  When there is much moisture from the
+protracted time and great quantity of the rains, many of those seeds
+germinate, while in mild seasons they are left as food for the wild
+animals, chiefly the field-mice and the birds, which again form part of
+the food of the predatory ones."
+
+There is something melancholy and depressing in the rains of autumn and
+winter, for they bear away the last traces of summer by stripping the
+trees of the many-coloured leaves, which in mild seasons will continue to
+adorn the landscape even late in November.  The rains of this month, and
+their effects, have been skilfully sketched by an accurate observer of
+nature.  He says:--
+
+    "Now cold rains come deluging down, till the drenched ground, the
+    dripping trees, the pouring eaves, and the torn, ragged-skirted
+    clouds, seemingly dragged downward slantwise by the threads of dusky
+    rain that descend from them, are all mingled together in one blind
+    confusion; while the few cattle that are left in open pastures,
+    forgetful of their till now interminable business of feeding, turn
+    their backs upon the besieging storm, and, hanging down their heads
+    till their noses almost touch the ground, stand out in the middle of
+    the fields motionless, like dead images.
+
+    "Now, too, a single rain-storm, like the above, breaks up all the
+    paths and ways at once, and makes home no longer 'home' to those who
+    are not obliged to leave it; while it becomes doubly endeared to
+    those who are.  What sight, for instance, is so pleasant to the
+    wearied woodman, who has been out all day long in the drenching rains
+    of this month, as his own distant cottage window seen through the
+    thickening dusk, lighted up by the blazing fagot that is to greet his
+    sure return at the accustomed minute?"
+
+While we watch the effects of the various rains, and their beneficial
+influence on the earth, there is also much to excite our gratitude and
+admiration; for among the many beautiful contrivances in creation, none
+is more remarkable than the means by which the earth is watered and
+refreshed by rain.  The oceans, seas, lakes, and other waters of the
+earth supply the air with moisture, which, rendered elastic and invisible
+by the heat of the sun and of the earth, rises to various heights in the
+atmosphere, where it forms clouds in all their wonderful beauty and
+variety.  These are borne by the winds to places far inland, to which
+water in sufficient quantity could not come by any other means, and where
+moisture is most required; and here the water is poured down, not in
+cataracts and water-spouts, but in the form of drops of various sizes.
+If the rain-clouds threw down, at once and suddenly, all the water
+contained in them, not only would vegetation be destroyed by the force of
+the fall, but we should be constantly liable to floods and other
+inconveniences.  Clouds also serve to screen the earth from the fierce
+heat of the sun by day; and, by night, they serve to maintain the heat
+which would otherwise escape by radiation, and produce great cold even in
+summer.  Clouds thus have great influence in regulating the extremes of
+heat and cold, and in forming what is called the "climate" of a country.
+Clouds also supply the hidden stores of fountains and the fresh water of
+rivers; and, as a pious old divine well remarks, "So abundant is this
+great blessing, which the most indulgent Creator hath afforded us by
+means of this distribution of the waters I am speaking of, that there is
+more than a scanty, bare provision, a mere sufficiency; even a plenty, a
+surplusage of this useful creature of God, the fresh waters afforded to
+the world; and they so well ordered, as not to drown the nations of the
+earth, nor to stagnate, stink, and poison, or annoy them; but to be
+gently carried through convenient channels back again to their grand
+fountain the sea; and many of them through such large tracts of land and
+to such prodigious distances, that it is a great wonder the fountains
+should be high enough, or the seas low enough, ever to afford so long a
+conveyance." {18}
+
+If rain is not at all seasons pleasant and delightful, neither are
+rain-clouds among the most beautiful which diversify the landscape of the
+sky; for it has been well remarked, that "all the fine-weather clouds are
+beautiful, and those connected with rain and wind mostly the reverse."
+What, indeed, can be more striking than the aerial landscapes of fine
+weather, in which, by an easy fancy, we can trace trees and towers,
+magnificent ruins and glaciers, natural bridges and palaces, all dashed
+with torrents of light or frowning in shadow, glowing like burnished
+silver, glittering in a golden light, or melting into the most enchanting
+hues?  But with all this beauty the eye is seldom capable of judging
+correctly of the proper size and forms and motions of clouds.  The same
+cloud which to one observer may be glowing with light, to another may be
+enveloped in shadow.  That which appears to be its summit may be only a
+portion of its outer edge, while that which seems to be its lower bed may
+really be a portion of its further border.  A spectator, on the summit of
+a tall cliff, may observe what he takes to be a single cloud; while a
+second spectator, on lower ground, will perceive that there are two
+clouds.  The motions of clouds are so deceptive, that they often seem to
+be moving in a curve over the great concave of heaven, while they are in
+fact advancing in nearly a right line.  Suppose, for example that a cloud
+is moving from the distant horizon towards the place where we stand, in a
+uniform horizontal line without changing either in size or form.  Such a
+cloud, when first seen, will appear to be in contact with the distant
+horizon, and consequently much nearer to us than it really is.  As it
+advances towards us, it will seem to rise into the sky, and to become
+gradually larger till it is almost directly overhead.  Continuing its
+progress, it will then seem again to descend and to lessen in size as
+gradually as it had before increased; till at length it disappears in the
+distant horizon at a point exactly opposite to that at which it was first
+seen.  Thus the same cloud, without varying its motion in the least from
+a straight line, and remaining throughout of the same size and form,
+would seem to be continually varying in magnitude; and the line of its
+motion, instead of being straight, would appear to be curved.  This is
+one of the most simple cases that can be supposed: but the clouds as they
+exist in nature do not remain of the same magnitude, but are constantly
+changing in form, in size, in direction, and in velocity; so that it is
+quite impossible to form an accurate idea of their shape and size, or to
+explain their motions.  Clouds, at different elevations, may often be
+seen to move in different directions under the influence of different
+currents of wind.
+
+[Picture: Different appearance of the same clouds to different observers]
+
+The distribution of light and shade in clouds is most striking.  The
+watery particles of which they are composed, yielding constantly to
+changes in temperature and moisture, are always changing; so that a most
+beautiful cloud may alter in figure and appearance in an instant of time;
+the light parts may suddenly become dark, and those that were shaded may
+all at once glow in the rays of the sun.  Again, the appearance of a
+cloud, with respect to the sun, may entirely alter its character.  The
+same cloud, to one observer, may appear entirely in shade, to another
+tipped with silver; to a third it may present brilliant points and
+various degrees of shade, or one of its edges only may appear
+illuminated; sometimes the middle parts may appear in shadow, while the
+margin may be partially luminous, rendering the middle parts all the more
+obscure by the contrast.
+
+A wonderful variety may also be produced by the shadow of one cloud
+falling upon another.  The accompanying sketch furnishes an example of
+this.  Sometimes the whole of a cloud projects a shadow through the air
+upon some other far distant cloud, and this again upon another, until at
+length it reaches the ground.  The shadows of moving clouds may often be
+traced upon the ground, and they contribute greatly to modify the
+appearance of the landscape.  A large number of small flickering clouds
+produce broken lights and shades which have an unpleasant jarring effect;
+but when the clouds are massive, or properly distributed, the shadows
+often produce a high degree of repose.
+
+                       [Picture: Shadows of clouds]
+
+Clouds are often seen to advantage in mountainous countries.  Here the
+aspect of the heavens may be entirely different at different elevations.
+A single cloud in the valley may conceal the whole of the upper sky from
+an observer; but as he ascends he may gradually get above this and other
+layers or bands of cloud, and see a beautifully variegated sky above him,
+while the clouds which conceal the valley may be rolling at his feet.
+Evelyn, in his Memoirs, notices a scene of this kind.  He says,--"Next
+morning we rode by Monte Pientio, or, as vulgarly called, Monte
+Mantumiato, which is of an excessive height, ever and anon peeping above
+airy clouds with its snowy head, till we had climbed to the inn at
+Radicofany, built by Ferdinand the greate Duke for the necessary
+refreshment of travellers in so inhospitable a place.  As we ascended we
+entered a very thick, solid, and dark body of cloudes, which looked like
+rocks at a little distance, which lasted neare a mile in going up; they
+were dry, misty vapours, hanging undissolved for a vast thicknesse, and
+obscuring both sun and earth, so that we seemed to be in the sea rather
+than in the cloudes, till, having pierced through it, we came into a most
+serene heaven, as if we had been above all human conversation, the
+mountain appearing more like a great island than joyn'd to any other
+hills, for we could perceive nothing but a sea of very thick cloudes
+rowling under our feete like huge waves, every now and then suffering the
+top of some other mountain to peepe through, which we could discover many
+miles off: and betweene some breaches of the cloudes we could see
+landskips and villages of the subjacent country.  This was one of the
+most pleasant, newe, and altogether surprising objects that I had ever
+beheld."
+
+In the following interesting account of the ascent of the Peak of
+Teneriffe by Captain Basil Hall, it will be seen that heavy rain clouds
+may skirt the mountain, while its summit is in a pure and dry air.
+
+    "On the 24th of August," he says, "we left Oratava to ascend the
+    Peak.  The day was the worst possible for our purpose, as it rained
+    hard; and was so very foggy that we could not see the Peak, or indeed
+    any object beyond one hundred yards distant.
+
+    "After riding slowly up a rugged path for four hours, it became
+    extremely cold, and, as the rain never ceased for an instant, we were
+    by this time drenched to the skin, and looked with no very agreeable
+    feelings to the prospect of passing the night in wet clothes.  At
+    length the night began to close in, and the guides talked of the
+    improbability of reaching the English station before night.  It was
+    still raining hard; but we dismounted, and took our dinner as
+    cheerfully as possible, and hoping for clearer weather the next day.
+    On remounting, we soon discovered that the road was no longer so
+    steep as it had been heretofore, and the surface was comparatively
+    smooth: we discovered, in short, that we had reached a sort of
+    table-land, along which we rode with ease.  Presently we thought the
+    fog less dense, and the drops of rain not so large, and the air less
+    chilling.  In about half an hour we got an occasional glimpse of the
+    blue sky; and as we ascended, (for our road, though comparatively
+    level, was still upon the rise,) these symptoms became more manifest.
+    The moon was at the full, and her light now became distinct, and we
+    could see the stars in the zenith.  By this time we had reached the
+    Llano de los Remenos, or Retamos Plain, which is many thousand feet
+    above the sea; and we could distinctly see that during the day we had
+    merely been in a cloud, above which having now ascended, the upper
+    surface lay beneath us like a country covered with snow.  It was
+    evident, on looking round, that no rain had fallen on the pumice
+    gravel over which we were travelling.  The mules were much fatigued,
+    and we got off to walk.  In a few minutes our stockings and shoes
+    were completely dried, and in less than half an hour all our clothes
+    were thoroughly dried.  The air was sharp and clear, like that of a
+    cold frosty morning in England; and though the extreme dryness, and
+    the consequent rapid evaporation, caused considerable cold, we were
+    enabled by quick exercise to keep ourselves comfortable.  I had
+    various instruments with me, but no regular hygrometer: accident,
+    however, furnished me with one sufficiently indicative of the dry
+    state of the air.  My gloves, which I kept on while mounted, were
+    completely soaked with the rain; and I took them off during this
+    walk, and, without considering what was likely to happen, rolled them
+    up, and carried them in my hand.  When, at the end of an hour, or
+    somewhat less, we came to remount our mules, I found the gloves as
+    thoroughly dried and shrivelled up as if they had been placed in an
+    oven.  During all the time we were at the Peak itself, on the 26th,
+    the sky was clear, the air quite dry, and we could distinguish,
+    several thousand feet below us, the upper and level surface of the
+    stratum of clouds through which we had passed the day before, and
+    into which we again entered on going down, and found precisely in the
+    same state as when we started."
+
+It is not uncommon to observe an effect quite contrary to the one given
+in the last two examples, the high summits of mountains being frequently
+concealed by heavy clouds of mist, while at a very short distance below
+them the air is clear and pure.  In ascending to the Port of Venasque,
+one of the mountain passes of the Pyrenees, Mr. Murray found the mists so
+dense that he despaired of getting above them, or of their clearing away.
+But fortunately the wind freshened, and the mist, broken by it, "came
+sweeping," he says, "over our heads, sometimes enveloping us in darkness,
+sometimes exposing the blue sky, and a part of the mountains.  Section
+after section of the bald and towering masses which rose above the path
+were displayed to us, one after another, as if the whole had been a sight
+too great for us to look upon.  Sometimes the clouds opened, and the
+snows, sparkling in the sun-beams, were before us; at others, an enormous
+peak of the mountain would shoot its dark head through the mist, and,
+without visible support, seem as if it were about to fall upon us.
+Again, when we imagined ourselves hemmed in on all sides by the
+mountains, and within a few feet of their rugged sides, a passing breeze
+would disclose the dark waters of the lakes hundreds of feet beneath us.
+
+"Thus the effect of light and darkness, of sunshine and of mist, working
+upon materials of such grandeur as those near the Port of Venasque, was a
+sight well worthy of admiration, and one which is rarely to be seen. * *
+* * Excepting the intervals of light which the gusts of wind, by
+dispersing the mists, had bestowed upon us, we had hitherto,
+comparatively speaking, been shrouded in darkness, particularly for the
+ten minutes preceding our arrival at the Port: my astonishment may
+therefore be imagined when, the instant that I stepped beyond the limits
+of the Port, I stood in the purest atmosphere--not a particle of mist,
+not even a cloud, was perceptible.  The phenomenon was curious, and its
+interest greatly heightened from the situation in which it took place.
+The mist rolling up the valley through which we had passed, was, the
+moment that it could be said to reach the Spanish frontier,--the moment
+it encircled the edges of the high ridges which separated the countries,
+thrown back, as it were, indignantly, by a counter current from the
+Spanish side.  The conflicting currents of air, seemingly of equal
+strength, and unable to overcome each other, carried the mist
+perpendicularly from the summits of the ridge, and filling up the
+crevices and fissures in its uneven surface, formed a wall many thousand
+feet above it, of dark and (from the appearance of solidity which its
+massive and perpendicular character bestowed upon it) apparently
+impenetrable matter."
+
+Undoubtedly the various phenomena of clouds may be seen to great
+advantage in mountain regions; and there is only one other method of
+seeing them to greater perfection, and that is from the car of a balloon.
+The following description of an aerial voyage, by Mr. M. Mason, in
+October 1836, will convey a better idea of the magnificence of a cloudy
+sky than any terrestrial prospect could do.  He says,--
+
+    "Scarcely had we quitted the earth before the clouds, which had
+    previously overhung us, began to envelop us on all sides, and
+    gradually to exclude the fading prospect from our sight.  It is
+    scarcely possible to convey an adequate idea of the effect produced
+    by this apparently trivial occurrence.  Unconscious of our own motion
+    from any direct impression upon our own feelings, the whole world
+    appeared to be in the act of receding from us in the dim vista of
+    infinite space; while the vapoury curtain seemed to congregate on all
+    sides and cover the retreating masses from our view.  The trees and
+    buildings, the spectators and their crowded equipages, and finally,
+    the earth itself, at first distinctly seen, gradually became obscured
+    by the thickening mist, and growing whiter in their forms, and
+    fainter in their outlines, soon faded away 'like the baseless fabric
+    of a vision,' leaving us, to all appearance, stationary in the cloud
+    that still continued to involve us in its watery folds.  To heighten
+    the interest and maintain the illusion of the scene, the shouts and
+    voices of the multitude whom we had left behind us, cheering the
+    ascent, continued to assail us, (long after the interposing clouds
+    had effectually concealed them from our eyes,) in accents which every
+    moment became fainter and fainter till they were finally lost in the
+    increasing distance.
+
+    "Through this dense body of vapour, which may be said to have
+    commenced at an altitude of about 1000 feet, we were borne upwards to
+    perhaps an equal distance, when the increasing light warned us of our
+    approach to its superior limits, and shortly after, the sun and we
+    rising together, a scene of splendour and magnificence suddenly burst
+    upon our view, which it would be vain to expect to render
+    intelligible by any mode of description within our power.  Pursuing
+    the illusion, which the previous events had been so strongly
+    calculated to create, the impression upon our senses was that of
+    entering upon a new world to which we had hitherto been strangers,
+    and in which not a vestige could be perceived to remind us of that we
+    had left, except the last faint echo of the voices which still dimly
+    reached us, as if out of some interminable abyss into which they were
+    fast retreating.
+
+    "Above us not a single cloud appeared to disfigure the clear blue
+    sky, in which the sun on one side, and the moon in her first quarter
+    on the other, reigned in undisturbed tranquillity.  Beneath us, in
+    every direction, as far as the eye could trace, and doubtless much
+    further, the whole plane of vision was one extended ocean of foam,
+    broken into a thousand fantastic forms; here swelling into mountains,
+    there sinking into lengthened fosses, or exhibiting the appearance of
+    vast whirlpools; with such a perfect mimicry of the real forms of
+    nature, that, were it not for a previous acquaintance with the
+    general character of the country below us, we should frequently have
+    been tempted to assert, without hesitation, the existence of
+    mountainous islands penetrating through the clouds, and stretching in
+    protracted ranges along the distant verge of our horizon.
+
+    "In the centre of this hemisphere, and at an elevation of about 3000
+    feet above the surface of the clouds, we continued to float in
+    solitary magnificence; attended only at first by our counterpart--a
+    vast image of the balloon itself with all its paraphernalia
+    distinctly thrown by the sun upon the opposite masses of vapour,
+    until we had risen so high that even that, outreaching the material
+    basis of its support, at length deserted us; nor did we again
+    perceive it until, preparatory to our final descent, we had sunk to a
+    proper elevation to admit of its re-appearance.
+
+    "Not the least striking feature of our, and similar situations, is
+    the total absence of all perceptible motion, as well as of the sound
+    which, in ordinary cases, is ever found to accompany it.  Silence and
+    tranquillity appear to hold equal and undisputed sway throughout
+    these airy regions.  No matter what may be the convulsions to which
+    the atmosphere is subjected, nor how violent its effects in sound and
+    motion upon the agitated surface of the earth, not the slightest
+    sensation of either can be detected by the individual who is floating
+    in its currents.  The most violent storm, the most outrageous
+    hurricane, pass equally unheeded and unfelt; and it is only by
+    observing the retreating forms of the stable world beneath, that any
+    certain indication can be obtained as to the amount or violence of
+    the motion to which the individual is actually subjected.  This,
+    however; was a resource of which we were unable to avail ourselves,
+    totally excluded as we were from all view of the earth, or any fixed
+    point connected with it.
+
+    "Once, and only once, for a few moments preparatory to our final
+    descent, did we obtain a transitory glimpse of the world beneath us.
+    Upon approaching the upper surface of the vapoury strata, which we
+    have described as extending in every direction around, a partial
+    opening in the clouds discovered to us for an instant a portion of
+    the earth, appearing as if dimly seen through a vast pictorial tube,
+    rapidly receding behind us, variegated with furrows, and intersected
+    with roads running in all directions; the whole reduced to a scale of
+    almost graphic minuteness, and from the fleecy vapour that still
+    partially obscured it, impressing the beholder with the idea of a
+    vision of enchantment, which some kindly genius had, for an instant,
+    consented to disclose.  Scarcely had we time to snatch a hasty
+    glance, ere we had passed over the spot, and the clouds uniting
+    gradually concealed it from our view.
+
+    "After continuing for a short space further, in the vain hope of
+    being again favoured with a similar prospect, the approach of night
+    made it desirable that we should prepare for our return to earth,
+    which we proceeded to accomplish accordingly."
+
+        [Picture: Kerr and his family in the middle of the flood]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+EFFECTS OF RAIN IN MOUNTAINOUS DISTRICTS--THE DISTRICT OF MORAY--THE
+GREAT FLOODS OF 1829--COMMENCEMENT OF THE RAIN--THE SWOLLEN
+RIVERS--DISASTROUS EFFECTS OF THE FLOOD--MEANS ADOPTED FOR THE RESCUE OF
+COTTAGERS--KERR AND HIS BRAVE DELIVERERS--RESCUE OF FUNNS AND HIS
+FAMILY--FLOODS OF THE RHONE IN 1840--OVERFLOWING OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
+
+It is well known that some years are wetter than others; but to persons
+living in tolerably flat countries an unusually wet season causes no
+great inconvenience.  It interferes, it is true, with outdoor
+employments, but people seldom apprehend any danger from the long
+continuance of rain.  It is not so, however, in hilly or mountainous
+regions; an unusual fall of rain swells the rivers to such an extent,
+that they often overflow their banks, and occasion much damage to the
+surrounding districts; or, where the river's banks are defended on both
+sides by perpendicular rocks, the waters sometimes rise so fast as to
+attain a height of forty or fifty feet above their natural level, and
+from this height they pour with destructive violence over the face of the
+country.  Such was the case in the great floods of Moray, which happened
+in the year 1829, of which the following is a brief abstract, derived
+chiefly from Sir Thomas Dick Lauder's interesting volume on this subject,
+published soon after the calamity for the benefit of the sufferers.
+
+The province of Moray, or Murray, is a large district in the north-east
+of Scotland, bounded by the Moray Frith on the north-east and north.  The
+eastern half of the province is lower than the western; in which the
+mountains render the whole country characteristically highland.  On the
+north is a long belt of lowlands, about 240 square miles in extent: this
+is greatly diversified with ridgy swells and low hilly ranges, lying
+parallel to the frith, and intersected by the rivers Ness, Nairn,
+Findhorn, Lossie, and Spey running across it to the sea.  The grounds
+behind the lowlands appear, as seen from the coast, to be only a narrow
+ridge of bold alpine heights, rising like a rampart to guard the
+orchards, and woods, and fields: but these really form long and broad
+mountain masses, receding, in all the wildness and intricacy of highland
+arrangement, to a distant summit line.  Some of the broad clifts and long
+narrow vales of these mountains form beautiful and romantic pictures;
+while many of their declivities are practicable to the plough or other
+instruments of cultivation; so that the bottoms and the reclaimed or
+reclaimable sides of the valleys are estimated to comprehend about
+one-third of the entire area.  The lowlands of Moray have long been
+celebrated for mildness and luxuriousness of climate, and also for a
+certain dryness of atmosphere, which seems to have some intimate
+connexion with the mournful calamity about to be described.  The high
+broad range of mountains on the south-west shelter the lowlands from the
+prevailing winds of the country, and exhaust many light vapours and
+thinly-charged clouds, which might otherwise produce gentle rains; but,
+for just the same reason, they powerfully attract whatever long broad
+streams of heavy clouds are sailing through the sky, and, among the
+gullies and the upland glens, amass their discharged contents with
+amazing rapidity, and in singular largeness of volume.  The rivers of the
+country are, in consequence, peculiarly liable to become flooded.  One
+general and tremendous outbreak, in 1829, "afforded an awful exhibition
+of the peculiarities of the climate, and will long be remembered, in
+connexion with the boasted luxuriousness of Moray, as an illustration of
+how chastisement and comfort are blended in a state of things which is
+benignly adjusted for the moral discipline of man, and the correction of
+moral evil."
+
+The heat in the province of Moray during the summer of 1829 was unusually
+great.  In May the drought was so excessive, as to kill many of the
+recently planted shrubs and trees.  As the season advanced, the
+variations in the barometer became so remarkable, that observers began to
+lose all confidence in this instrument.
+
+The deluge of rain, which produced the flood of the 3d and 4th of August,
+fell chiefly on the Monadhlradh mountains, rising between the south-east
+part of Lochness and Kingussie, in Badenoch, and on that part of the
+Grampian range forming the somewhat independent groups of the
+Cairngorums.  The westerly winds, which prevailed for some time
+previously, seem to have produced a gradual accumulation of vapour to the
+north of our island, and the column, being suddenly impelled by a strong
+north-easterly blast, was driven towards the south-west, its right flank
+almost sweeping the Caithness and Sutherland coasts, until rushing up and
+across the Moray Frith it was attracted by the lofty mountains just
+mentioned, and discharged in fearful torrents.  There fell at a great
+distance from the mountains, within twenty-four hours, about one-sixth of
+the annual allowance of rain; on the mountains themselves the deluge that
+descended, must have been so enormous as to occasion surprise that a
+flood, even yet more tremendous in its magnitude and consequences, did
+not result from it.
+
+The mouth of the Findhorn is described as the most important scene of
+action.  The banks of this river are well defended by rocks on either
+side, and its whole course is distinguished by the most romantic scenery.
+At the part where it is crossed by the old military bridge of Dulsie, the
+scenery is of the wildest character.  The flood was most tremendous at
+this bridge, for the water was so confined that it filled the smaller
+arch altogether, and rose in the great arch to within three feet of the
+key-stone, that is to say, forty feet above the usual level.  This fine
+old bridge sustained but little damage, while many of the modern
+buildings were entirely swept away.  At another part of the river, it is
+stated, as a curious illustration of the height to which the stream had
+risen, that a gardener waded into the water as it had begun to ebb on the
+haugh, and with his umbrella drove ashore and captured a fine salmon, at
+an elevation of fifty feet above the ordinary level of the Findhorn.
+
+At Randolph's bridge the opening expands as the rocks rise upwards, till
+the width is about seventy or eighty feet; yet, from the sudden turn of
+the river, as it enters this passage, the stream was so checked in its
+progress that the flood actually rose over the very top of the rocks,
+forty-six feet above the usual height, and inundated the level part that
+lies over them to the depth of four feet, making a total perpendicular
+rise at this point of not less than fifty feet.
+
+The effects of the deluge of the 3d and 4th of August, remain on the
+Dorbach, in a bank one hundred feet high, which rose with slopes and
+terraces covered with birch and alder wood.  The soil being naturally
+spongy imbibed so much rain, that it became overloaded, and a mass of
+about an acre in extent, with all its trees on it, gave way at once,
+threw itself headlong down, and bounded across the bed of the Dorbach,
+blocking up the waters, flooded and wide as they were at the time.  A
+farmer, who witnessed this phenomenon, told Sir Thomas Dick Lauder that
+it fell "wi' a sort o' a dumb sound," while astonished and confounded he
+remained gazing at it.  The bottom of the valley is here some two hundred
+yards or more wide, and the flood nearly filled it.  The stoppage was not
+so great, therefore, as altogether to arrest the progress of the stream;
+but this sudden obstacle created an accumulation of water behind it,
+which went on increasing for nearly an hour, till, becoming too powerful
+to be longer resisted, the enormous dam began to yield, and was swept off
+at once, and hurled onwards like a floating island.  While the farmer
+stood lost in wonder to behold his farm thus sailing off to the ocean by
+acres at a time, another half acre, or more, was suddenly rent from its
+native hill, and descended at once, with a whole grove of trees on it, to
+the river, where it rested on its natural base.  The flood immediately
+assailed this, and carried off the greater part of it piecemeal.  At the
+time when Sir Thomas was writing, part of it remained with the trees
+growing on it in the upright position, after having travelled through a
+horizontal distance of sixty or seventy yards, with a perpendicular
+descent of not less than sixty feet.
+
+  [Picture: The flood like--Brig of Bannock.  (The dotted line shows the
+     height gained by the flood above the usual level of the stream)]
+
+At Dunphail, the residence of Mr. Bruce was threatened by the flood, and
+that gentleman prevailed on his wife and daughter to quit the house and
+seek refuge on higher ground.  Before quitting the place, their anxiety
+had been extremely excited for the fate of a favourite old pony, then at
+pasture in a broad green, and partially-wooded island, of some acres in
+extent.  As the spot had never been flooded in the memory of man, no one
+thought of removing the pony until the wooden bridges having been washed
+away rendered it impossible to do so.  When the embankment gave way, and
+the patches of green gradually diminished, Dobbin, now in his 27th year,
+and in shape something like a 74-gun ship cut down to a frigate, was seen
+galloping about in great alarm as the wreck of roots and trees floated
+past him, and as the last spot of grass disappeared he was given up for
+lost.  At this moment he made a desperate effort to cross the stream
+under the house; the force of the current turned him head over heels, but
+he rose again with his head up the river; he made boldly up against it,
+but was again borne down and turned over: every one believed him lost,
+when rising once more and setting down the waste of water, he crossed
+both torrents, and landed safely on the opposite bank.
+
+At night Mr. Bruce says there was something inexpressibly fearful and
+sublime in the roar of the torrent, which by this time filled the valley,
+the ceaseless plash of the rain, and the frequent and fitful gusts of the
+north wind that groaned among the woods.  The river had now undermined
+the bank the house stood on, and this bank had already been carried away
+to within four paces of the foundation of the kitchen tower, and, as mass
+after mass fell with a thundering noise, some fine trees, which had stood
+for more than a century on the terrace above it, disappeared in the
+stream.  The operations of the flood were only dimly discovered by
+throwing the faint light of lanterns over its waters, and its progress
+was judged of by marking certain intervals of what remained of the
+terrace.  One by one these fell in, and at about eleven o'clock the river
+was still rising, and only a space of three yards remained about the
+house, which was now considered as lost.  The furniture was ordered to be
+removed, and by means of carts and lanterns this was done without any
+loss.  About one o'clock in the morning, the partial subsidence of the
+flood awakened a slight hope, but in an hour it rose again higher than
+before.  The banks which supported the house were washed away, and the
+house itself seemed to be doomed, and the people were therefore sent out
+of it.  But Providence ordered otherwise; about four o'clock the clouds
+appeared higher, the river began again to subside; by degrees a little
+sloping beach became visible towards the foot of the precipice; the flood
+ceased to undermine, and the house was saved.
+
+But the ruin and devastation of the place were frightful to behold.  The
+shrubbery, all along the river side, with its little hill and moss-house,
+had vanished; two stone and three wooden buildings were carried off; the
+beautiful fringe of wood on both sides of the river, with the ground it
+grew on, were washed to the ocean, together with all those sweet and
+pastoral projections of the fields which gave so peaceful and fertile a
+character to the valley; whilst the once green island, robbed of its
+groups of trees and furrowed by a dozen channels, was covered with large
+stones, gravel, and torn-up roots.
+
+At another part of the same river (the Divie) Sir Thomas describes, from
+his own observations, the progress of the flood.  The noise was a
+distinct combination of two kinds of sound: one, an uniform continued
+roar; the other, like rapidly repeated discharges of cannon.  The first
+of these proceeded from the violence of the water; the other, which was
+heard through it, and as it were muffled by it, came from the numerous
+stones which the stream was hurling over its uneven bed of rock.  Above
+all this was heard the shrieking of the wind.  The leaves were stripped
+off the trees and whirled into the air, and their thick boughs and stems
+were bending and cracking beneath the tempest.  The rain was descending
+in sheets, not in drops: and a peculiar lurid, bronze-like hue pervaded
+the whole face of nature.  And now the magnificent trees were overthrown
+faster and faster, offering no more resistance than reeds before the
+mower's scythe.  Numerous as they were, they were all, individually,
+well-known friends.  Each, as it fell, gave one enormous plash on the
+surface, then a plunge, the root upwards above water for a moment; again
+all was submerged--and then up rose the stem disbranched and peeled;
+after which, they either toiled round in the cauldron, or darted, like
+arrows, down the stream.  "A chill ran through our hearts as we beheld
+how rapidly the ruin of our favourite and long-cherished spot was going
+on.  But we remembered that the calamity came from the hand of God; and
+seeing that no human power could avail, we prepared ourselves to watch
+every circumstance of the spectacle."  In the morning the place was seen
+cleared completely of shrubs, trees, and soil; and the space so lately
+filled with a wilderness of verdure was now one vast and powerful
+red-coloured river.
+
+On the left bank of the Findhorn the discharge of water, wreck, and
+stones that burst over the extensive plain of Forres, spreading
+devastation abroad on a rich and beautiful country, was truly terrific.
+On the 3d of August, Dr. Brands, of Forres, having occasion to go to the
+western side of the river, forded it on horseback, but ere he crossed the
+second branch of the stream, he saw the flood coming thundering down.
+His horse was caught by it; he was compelled to swim; and he had not long
+touched dry land ere the river had risen six feet.  By the time he had
+reached Moy the river had branched out into numerous streams, and soon
+came rolling on in awful grandeur; the effect being greatly heightened by
+the contrary direction of the northerly wind, then blowing a gale.  Many
+of the cottages occupied a low level, and the inhabitants were urged to
+quit them.  Most of them did so; but some, trusting to their apparent
+distance from the river, refused to move.
+
+About ten o'clock the river had risen and washed away several of the
+cottages; and on every side were heard reports of suffering cottagers,
+whose houses were surrounded by water.  One of them was Sandy Smith, an
+active boatman, commonly called _Whins_, (or _Funns_, as it is
+pronounced,) from his residence on a piece of furzy pasture, at no great
+distance from the river.  From the situation of his dwelling he was given
+up for lost; but for a long time the far-distant gleam of light that
+issued from his window showed that he yet lived.
+
+The barns on the higher grounds accommodated many people; and large
+quantities of brose (broth) were made for the dripping and shivering
+wretches.  Candles were placed in all the windows of the principal house
+(that of Mr. Suter) that poor Funns might see he was not forgotten.  But,
+alas! his light no longer burns, and in the midst of the tempest and
+darkness, it was utterly vain to attempt to assist the distressed.
+
+At daybreak the wide waste of waters was only bounded by the rising
+grounds on the south and west: whilst, towards the north and east, the
+watery world swept off, uninterruptedly, into the expanding Frith and the
+German Ocean.  The embankments appeared to have everywhere given way; and
+the water that covered the fields, lately so beautiful with yellow wheat,
+green turnips, and other crops, rushed with so great impetuosity in
+certain directions, as to form numerous currents, setting furiously
+through the quieter parts of the inundation, and elevated several feet
+above it.  As far as the eye could reach the brownish-yellow moving mass
+of water was covered with trees and wreck of every description, whirled
+along with a force that shivered many of them against unseen obstacles.
+There was a sublimity in the mighty power and deafening roar of waters,
+heightened by the livid hue of the clouds, the sheeting rain, the howling
+of the wind, the lowing of the cattle, and the screaming and wailing of
+the assembled people, that riveted the attention.  In the distance could
+dimly be descried the far-off dwelling of poor Funns, its roof rising
+like a speck above the flood, that had evidently made a breach in one of
+its ends.
+
+A family named Kerr, who had refused to quit their dwelling, were the
+objects of great anxiety.  Their son, Alexander Kerr, had been watching
+all night, and in the morning was still gazing towards the spot in an
+agony of mind, and weeping for the apparently inevitable destruction of
+his parents.  His master tried to comfort him; but even whilst he spoke,
+the whole gable of Kerr's dwelling, which was the uppermost of three
+houses composing the row, gave way, and fell into the raging current.
+Dr. Brands, who was looking on intently at the time, with a telescope,
+observed a hand thrust through the thatch of the central house.  It
+worked busily, as if in despair of life; a head soon appeared; and at
+last Kerr's whole frame emerged on the roof, and he began to exert
+himself in drawing out his wife and niece.  Clinging to one another, they
+crawled along the roof towards the northern chimney.  The sight was
+torturing.  Kerr, a little a-head of the others, was seen tearing off the
+thatch, as if trying to force an entrance through the roof, whilst the
+miserable women clung to the house-top, the blankets which they had used
+to shelter them almost torn from them by the violence of the hurricane;
+and the roof they had left yielding and tottering, fell into the sweeping
+flood.  The thatch resisted all Kerr's efforts; and he was now seen to
+let himself drop from the eaves on a small speck of ground higher than
+the rest, close to the foundation of the back wall of the buildings,
+which was next the spectators.  There he finally succeeded in bringing
+down the women; and there he and they stood, without even room to move.
+
+           [Picture: Perilous situation of Kerr and his family]
+
+Some people went on horseback to try to procure boats.  They managed to
+get on some way by keeping the line of road.  The water was so deep that
+the horses were frequently swimming; but at length the current became so
+strong that they were compelled to seek the rising grounds.  Dr. Brands
+attempted to reach the bridge of Findhorn, in hopes of getting one of the
+fishermen's cobbles.  As he was approaching the bridge he learned that
+the last of the three arches had fallen the instant before; and when he
+got to the brink, the waters were sweeping on as if it had never been,
+making the rocks and houses vibrate with a distinct and tremulous motion.
+The current was playing principally against the southern approach of the
+bridge, and soon the usually dry arch, at its further end, burst with a
+loud report; its fragments, mixed with water, being blown into the air as
+if by gunpowder.  The boats had all been swept away, and the fishermen's
+houses were already one mass of ruin.  The centre of the main stream was
+hurried on at an elevation many feet higher than the rest of the
+surrounding sea of waters; the mighty rush of which displayed its power
+in the ruin it occasioned.  Magnificent trees, with all their branches,
+were dashing and rending against the rock, and the roaring and crashing
+sound that prevailed was absolutely deafening.
+
+As there was no chance of getting a boat the Doctor returned with
+difficulty to the house, his mare swimming a great part of the way.  On
+again looking through the telescope at poor Kerr and his family, they
+were seen huddled together on a spot of ground a few feet square, some
+forty or fifty yards below their inundated dwelling. {55}  He was
+sometimes standing and sometimes sitting on a small cask, and, as the
+beholders fancied, watching with intense anxiety the progress of the
+flood, and trembling for every large tree that it brought sweeping past
+them.  His wife, covered with a blanket, sat shivering on a bit of a log,
+one child in her lap, and a girl of about seventeen, and a boy of about
+twelve years of age, leaning against her side.  A bottle and a glass on
+the ground near the man gave the spectators, as it had doubtless given
+him, some degree of comfort.  Above a score of sheep were standing
+around, or wading, or swimming in the shallows.  Three cows and a small
+horse picking at a broken rick of straw that seemed to be half afloat,
+were also grouped with the family.  Dreading that they must all be swept
+off, if not soon relieved, the gentlemen hastened to the offices, and
+looked anxiously out from the top of the tower for a boat.  At last they
+had the satisfaction to see one launched from the garden at Earnhill,
+about a mile below.  The boat had been conveyed by a pair of horses, and
+had only just arrived.  It was nobly manned by three volunteers, and they
+proceeded at once to the rescue of a family who were in a most perilous
+situation in the island opposite to Earnhill.  The gentlemen on the tower
+watched the motions of this boat with the liveliest interest.  They saw
+it tugging up till it was hid from them by the wood.  Again it was seen
+beyond, and soon it dashed into the main stream and disappeared again
+behind the wood, with a velocity so fearful that they concluded it was
+lost.  But in a moment it again showed itself, and the brave fellows were
+seen plying their oars across the submerged island of Earnhill, making
+for John Smith's cottage; the thatch and a small part of the side walls
+of which were visible above the water.  The poor inmates were dragged out
+of the windows from under the water, having been obliged to duck within
+ere they could effect their escape.  The boat then swept down the stream
+towards a place called 'The Lakes,' where John Smith, his wife, and her
+mother were safely landed.
+
+The boat was next conveyed by the horses to a point from which it was
+launched for the rescue of the Kerrs.  Having pulled up as far as they
+could in the still water, they approached the desperate current, and
+fearlessly dashed into its tumultuous waves.  For a moment the spectators
+were in the most anxious doubt as to the result; for, though none could
+pull a stronger oar, yet the boat in crossing a distance equal to its own
+length was swept down 200 yards.  Ten yards more would have dashed them
+to atoms on the lower stone wall.  But they were now in comparatively
+quiet water; and availing themselves of this, they pulled up again to the
+park, in the space between two currents, and passed, with a little less
+difficulty, though in the same manner, the second and third streams, and
+at length reached the houses.  The spectators gave them three hearty
+cheers.  By this time the Kerrs had been left scarcely three feet of
+ground to stand on, under the back wall of the houses.  A pleasing sight
+it was to see the boat touch that tiny strand, and the despairing family
+taken on board.  How anxiously did the spectators watch every motion of
+the little boat, that was now so crowded as very much to impede the
+rowers.  They crossed the first two streams, and finally drew up for the
+last and dreadful trial.  There the frail bark was again whirled down;
+and notwithstanding all their exertions, the stern just touched the wall.
+The prow however was in stiller water; one desperate pull,--she sprang
+forward in safety, and a few more strokes of the oar landed the poor
+people amongst fifty or sixty of their assembled friends.  After mutual
+greetings and embraces, and many tears of gratitude, old Kerr related his
+simple story.  "Seeing their retreat cut off by the flood, they attempted
+to wade ashore.  But the nearer the shore, the deeper and more powerful
+was the current.  The moment was awful.  The torrent increased on all
+sides, and night, dark night, was spread over them.  The stream began to
+be too deep for the niece, a girl of twelve years of age,--she lost heart
+and began to sink.  At this alarming crisis Kerr seized the trembling
+girl, and placed her on his back, and shoulder to shoulder with his wife,
+he providentially, but with the greatest difficulty, regained his own
+house.  Between eight and nine o'clock he groped his way, and led his
+wife and niece up into the garret.  He could not tell how long they
+remained there, but supposed it might be till about two o'clock next
+morning, when the roof began to fail.  To avoid being crushed to death,
+he worked anxiously till he drove down the partition separating them from
+the adjoining house.  Fortunately for him it was composed of wood and
+clay, and a partial failure he found in it very much facilitated his
+operations.  Having made their way good, they remained there till about
+eight o'clock in the morning, when the strength of the water without
+became so great that it bent inwards the bolt of the lock of the
+house-door, till it had no greater hold of the staple than the
+eighth-part of an inch.  Aware, that if the door should give way the back
+wall of the house would be swept down by the rush of the water inwards,
+and that they would be crushed to atoms, he rummaged the garret and
+fortunately found a bit of board and a few nails; and standing on the
+stairs, he placed one end of it against the door and the other on the
+hatch, forming the entrance to the garret, and so nailed it firmly down.
+At last the roof of the second house began to crack over their heads, and
+Kerr forced a way for himself and his companions through the thatch as
+has been already told."
+
+Poor Funns and his family were not yet rescued from their little island;
+and the boat was declared to be too small and weak for so desperate a
+voyage.  It was therefore determined to row to a spot where a larger boat
+was moored.  To effect this, they were compelled to act precisely as they
+had done in proceeding to rescue the Kerrs.  But unfortunately, on
+entering the third stream, they permitted the boat to glide down with it,
+in the hope that it would carry them in safety through the gate of the
+field, and across the road into that beyond it.  In this, however, they
+were mistaken, and the boat was swamped.  Fortunately for them, they were
+carried into smooth water, and by wading shoulder deep they reached the
+large boat.
+
+Having secured the small boat, they attempted to drag the large one
+through the gateway against the stream; but it soon filled with water and
+swamped, and, in spite of all their exertions, they found it impossible
+to get it up.  The small boat was now all they had to trust to, and this
+was next caught by the strong stream and overwhelmed in a moment; and had
+not the men, most providentially, caught and clung to a haycock that
+happened to be floating past, they must have been lost.  They were
+carried along till it stuck on some young alder trees, when each of them
+grasped a bough, and the haycock sailed away, leaving them among the weak
+and brittle branches.  They had been here about two hours, when one of
+the men being unable to hold on longer by the boughs, let himself gently
+down into the water with the hope of finding bottom; when, to his
+surprise, he found that the small boat had actually drifted to the root
+of the very tree to which they had been carried.  Some salmon nets and
+ropes had also, by the strangest accident, been lodged there.  The man
+contrived to pull up one of these with his foot, and making a noose, and
+slipping it on his great toe, he descended once more, and managed to fix
+the rope round the stern of the boat, which was then safely hauled up,
+the oars, being fixed to the side, being also saved.  The boat was
+returned to Mr. Suter's and fresh manned, when it proceeded to a house
+occupied by a family of the name of Cumin, consisting of an old couple,
+their daughter, and grandson.  By the time they reached the cottage, its
+western side was entirely gone, and the boat was pushed in at the gap.
+Not a sound was heard within, and they suspected that all were drowned;
+but, on looking through a hole in a partition, they discovered the
+unhappy inmates roosted, like fowls, on the beams of the roof.  They
+were, one by one, transferred safely to the boat, half dead with cold;
+and melancholy to relate, the old man's mind, being too much enfeebled to
+withstand the agonizing apprehensions he had suffered, was now utterly
+deranged.
+
+                      [Picture: Rescuing cottagers]
+
+The poor Funns' were still the last to be relieved.  They and their
+cattle were clustered on their little speck of land; and the poor
+quadrupeds, being chilled by standing so long in the water, were
+continually pressing inwards on them.  It was between six and seven
+o'clock, the weather was clearer, and the waters were subsiding.  The
+task being the most difficult of all, none but the most skilful rowers
+were allowed to undertake it.  One wide inundation stretched from Monro's
+house to the tiny spot where Funns and his family were; and five
+tremendously tumultuous streams raged through it with elevated waves.
+The moment they dashed into the first of them they were whirled down for
+a great way; but having once got through it, they pulled up in the
+quieter water beyond, to prepare for the next; and in doing so, Sergeant
+Grant stood in the prow, and with a long rope, the end of which was fixed
+to the boat, and wherever he thought he had footing, he sprang out and
+dragged them up.  The rest followed his example, and in this way they
+were enabled to start afresh with a sufficient advantage, and they
+crossed all the outer streams in the same manner.  The last they
+encountered, being towards the middle of the flood, was fearful, and
+carried them very far down.  But Funns himself, overjoyed to behold them,
+waded towards them, and gave them his best help to drag up the boat
+again.  Glad was he to see his wife and children safely set in the boat.
+The perils of their return were not few; but they were at length happily
+landed.
+
+These examples will suffice to show the nature and extent of the great
+floods of Moray.  The inundation covered a space of something more than
+twenty miles in the Plain of Forres, and, as it was expressively remarked
+by one of the sufferers, "Before these floods was the Garden of Eden and
+behind them a desolate wilderness."  And how often did the beautiful
+expression of the Psalmist occur to them: "The floods have lifted up, O
+Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their
+waves.  The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters; yea,
+than the mighty waves of the sea."  Ps. xciii. 3, 4.
+
+But it is not in Scotland alone that the terrors of the floods are
+experienced.  All rivers which rise in high and cold regions, and pass
+into warm lowlands, are naturally very liable to overflow their bounds.
+A remarkable example is afforded by the river Rhone, which rises in the
+glaciers of Switzerland; and, after passing through the lake of Geneva,
+descends into the south-eastern departments of France,--a very level
+district, where the climate is mild and genial.  Rapid meltings of the
+ice in Switzerland, or heavy falls of rain or snow in that country,
+greatly affect this river; and never, perhaps, were the effects more
+dreadful than in the inundations of 1840.  At Lyons, where the Rhone
+joins the Saone, the most lamentable scenes took place.  Not only were
+the whole of the low-lying lands in the vicinity of the city completely
+desolated, hundreds of houses overturned, and many cattle swept away, but
+the waters reached the city itself, bursting into the gas conduits, and
+thus leaving the people in darkness, and rising to a great height in the
+streets.  The destruction of property, both in-doors and out-of-doors,
+was immense, and the loss of life appalling.  Charitable people and
+public servants went about in boats laden with provisions, which were
+sent, at the expense of the magistrates and clergy, to the starving
+families pent up in their several abodes, where many of them remained in
+total darkness by night, and under hourly expectation that the
+foundations of their houses would give way beneath the rushing waters.
+In fact, numbers of houses, and even whole streets, were in this way
+sapped and overturned.  Some of the people had fled to the heights near
+the city, at the first rising of the waters, but there they were reduced
+to the greatest extremities for want of food, and signal shots were heard
+from them continually.  This miserable state of things lasted from the
+beginning of November until the 20th or 21st of the same month.  At the
+same time the Rhone appeared like a succession of immense lakes from
+Lyons to Avignon, and from Avignon to the sea.  A letter from Nismes, a
+little to the west of Avignon, thus described the scene:--
+
+    "As far as the view extends we perceive but one sheet of water, in
+    the midst of which appear the tops of trees and houses, with the
+    miserable inhabitants perched upon them.  At Valabregue, an island on
+    the Rhone, they have hung out a black banner from the church-yard,
+    nearly two thousand persons being assembled in that spot, which is on
+    an elevation.  Steam-boats are attempting to carry bread to
+    Valabregue, and other similarly situated places, but can scarcely
+    effect it from the inequality of the ground.  For ten days the rains
+    have never ceased.  The space covered by the waters near Avignon is
+    calculated at about thirty-six leagues in length and sixty leagues in
+    breadth.  Human bodies are seen passing continually on the waters."
+
+From the 10th to the 20th of November the Rhone fell several inches each
+day, but always rose again somewhat during the night.  It began
+permanently to decline on the 20th, and in a few days the streets were
+exposed to view, with about a foot of mud on them.  The loss of life and
+property, through this calamity, are almost incalculable.
+
+A still grander display of the power and extent of inundations is
+afforded by the American rivers.  The mighty waters of the Mississippi,
+(a river, whose course extends for several thousand miles,) when swelled,
+and overflowing their banks, present a wonderful spectacle.  Unlike the
+mountain-torrents, and small rivers, of other parts of the world, the
+Mississippi rises slowly, continuing for several weeks to increase at the
+rate of about an inch in a day.  When at its height, it undergoes little
+change for some days, and after this subsides as slowly as it rose.  A
+flood generally lasts from four to six weeks, though it sometimes extends
+to two months.  The American naturalist, Audubon, has given a striking
+account of the rush of waters overspreading the land when once this
+mighty river has begun to overflow its banks:--
+
+    "No sooner has the water reached the upper part of the banks, than it
+    rushes out, and overspreads the whole of the neighbouring swamps,
+    presenting an ocean overgrown with stupendous forest trees.  So
+    sudden is the calamity that every individual, whether man or beast,
+    has to exert his utmost ingenuity to enable him to escape from the
+    dreaded element.  The Indian quickly removes to the hills of the
+    interior, the cattle and game swim to the different strips of land
+    that remain uncovered in the midst of the flood, or attempt to force
+    their way through the waters until they perish from fatigue.  Along
+    the banks of the river the inhabitants have rafts ready-made, on
+    which they remove themselves, their cattle, and their provisions, and
+    which they then fasten with ropes or grape-vines to the larger trees,
+    while they contemplate the melancholy spectacle presented by the
+    current, as it carries off their houses and wood-yards piece by
+    piece.  Some, who have nothing to lose, and are usually known by the
+    name of Squatters, take this opportunity of traversing the woods in
+    canoes, for the purpose of procuring game, and particularly the skins
+    of animals, such as the deer and bear, which may be converted into
+    money.  They resort to the low ridges surrounded by the waters, and
+    destroy thousands of deer, merely for their skins, leaving the flesh
+    to putrify.
+
+    "The river itself, rolling its swollen waters along, presents a
+    spectacle of the most imposing nature.  Although no large vessel,
+    unless propelled by steam, can now make its way against the current,
+    it is seen covered by boats laden with produce, which, running out
+    from all the smaller streams, float silently towards the city of New
+    Orleans, their owners, meanwhile, not very well assured of finding a
+    landing-place even there.  The water is covered with yellow foam and
+    pumice, the latter having floated from the rocky mountains of the
+    north-west.  The eddies are larger and more powerful than ever.  Here
+    and there tracts of forest are observed undermined, the trees
+    gradually giving way, and falling into the stream.  Cattle, horses,
+    bears, and deer are seen at times attempting to swim across the
+    impetuous mass of foaming and boiling water; whilst, here and there,
+    a vulture or an eagle is observed perched on a bloated carcass,
+    tearing it up in pieces, as regardless of the flood, as on former
+    occasions it would have been of the numerous sawyers and planters
+    with which the surface of the river is covered when the water is low.
+    Even the steamer is frequently distressed.  The numberless trees and
+    logs that float along, break its paddles, and retard its progress.
+    Besides it is on such occasions difficult to procure fuel to maintain
+    its fires."
+
+In certain parts, the shores of the Mississippi are protected by
+artificial barriers called Levees.  In such places, during a flood, the
+whole population of the district is engaged in strengthening these
+barriers, each proprietor being in great alarm lest a crevasse should
+open and let in the waters upon his fields.  In spite of all exertions
+this disaster generally happens: the torrent rushes impetuously over the
+plantations, and lays waste the most luxuriant crops.
+
+The mighty changes effected by the inundations of the Mississippi are
+little known until the waters begin to subside.  Large streams are then
+found to exist where none had formerly been.  These are called by
+navigators _short cuts_, and some of them are so considerable as to
+interfere with the navigation of the Mississippi.  Large sand-banks are
+also completely removed by the impetuous whirl of the waters, and are
+deposited in other places.  Some appear quite new to the navigator, who
+has to mark their situation and bearings in his log-book.  Trees on the
+margin of the river have either disappeared, or are tottering and bending
+over the stream preparatory to their fall.  The earth is everywhere
+covered by a deep deposit of muddy loam, which, in drying, splits into
+deep and narrow chasms, forming a sort of network, from which, in warm
+weather, noxious exhalations rise, filling the atmosphere with a dense
+fog.  The Squatter, shouldering his rifle, makes his way through the
+morass in search of his lost stock, to drive the survivors home and save
+the skins of the drowned.  New fences have everywhere to be formed, and
+new houses erected; to save which from a like disaster, the settler
+places them on a raised platform, supported by pillars made of the trunks
+of trees.  "The lands must be ploughed anew; and if the season is not too
+far advanced, a crop of corn and potatoes may yet be raised.  But the
+rich prospects of the planter are blasted.  The traveller is impeded in
+his journey, the creeks and smaller streams having broken up their banks
+in a degree proportionate to their size.  A bank of sand, which seems
+firm and secure, suddenly gives way beneath the traveller's horse, and
+the next moment the animal has sunk in the quicksand, either to the chest
+in front, or to the crupper behind, leaving its master in a situation not
+to be envied."
+
+                      [Picture: Mists in the Valley]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+VARIOUS FORMS OP CLOUDS--THE CIRRUS, OR CURL-CLOUD--THE CUMULUS, OR
+STACKEN-CLOUD--THE STRATUS, OR FALL-CLOUD--THE CIRRO-CUMULUS, OR
+SONDER-CLOUD--THE CIRRO-STRATUS, OR WANE-CLOUD--THE CUMULO-STRATUS, OR
+TWAIN-CLOUD--THE NIMBUS, OR RAIN-CLOUD--ARRANGEMENT OF
+RAIN-CLOUDS--APPEARANCES OF A DISTANT SHOWER--SCUD--CAUSE OF
+RAIN--FORMATION OF CLOUDS--MISTS--HEIGHTS OF CLOUDS--APPEARANCE OF THE
+SKY ABOVE THE CLOUDS.
+
+Many persons are apt to suppose that the clouds are among the most fitful
+and irregular appearances in the world; fleeting and unstable in their
+nature, uncertain in their forms, apparently subject to no fixed laws,
+and obedient neither to times nor seasons.  Attentive observers, however,
+have proved that the beauty and harmony which are everywhere found to
+prevail in nature when rightly understood, can also be traced, even in
+the clouds.  Although very much still remains to be discovered respecting
+them, yet it is found that, like all the other natural productions, they
+admit of being arranged and classified.  So obvious was this to persons
+whose interest it is to observe the weather, that, long before scientific
+men had studied the subject, country people had noticed the different
+forms of clouds, and had learned to distinguish them by different names.
+
+The first scientific man who made the clouds the object of his particular
+study, was Luke Howard, who, from an attentive consideration of their
+forms and appearances, found that they might all be arranged under three
+simple or primary forms, namely:--
+
+1.  The _Cirrus_--so called from its resemblance to a _curled lock of
+hair_.  (Figures, 1, 2; page 77.)
+
+2.  The _Cumulus_, from the _heaped_ appearance presented by the convex
+masses which form this cloud.  (Figure 7.)
+
+3.  The _Stratus_, from its spreading out horizontally in a continuous
+layer, and increasing from below.  (Figure 10.)
+
+These three primary forms are subject to four modifications:--
+
+The first is the _Cirro-cumulus_, consisting of small roundish and
+well-defined masses, in close horizontal arrangement.  (Figure 3.)
+
+                    [Picture: Various forms of clouds]
+
+The second is the _Cirro-Stratus_, and the masses which compose it are
+small and rounded, but thinned off towards a part, or towards the whole
+of their circumference.  They are sometimes separate, and sometimes in
+groups.  (Figures 4, 5, 6.)
+
+The third is the _Cumulo-Stratus_, which is made up of the cirro-stratus
+blended with the cumulus.  (Figure 8.)
+
+The fourth is the _Cumulo-Cirro-Stratus_, or _Nimbus_.  This is the true
+_rain-cloud_, or system of clouds from which rain is falling.  (Figure
+9.)
+
+The term _modification_ applies to the structure or manner in which a
+given mass of cloud is made up, and not to its precise form or size,
+which in most clouds varies every instant.  Mr. Howard remarks, that it
+may be at first difficult to distinguish one modification from another,
+or to trace the narrow limits which sometimes separate the different
+modifications; but a moderate acquaintance with the subject will soon
+enable any one to point out the various forms, and to a great extent to
+judge of the state of the weather by them.  In order, therefore, to
+assist the reader in gaining a certain amount of knowledge on this
+interesting subject, it may be useful to state more fully the various
+phenomena of the different forms of clouds already enumerated.
+
+                   [Picture: The Cirrus, or curl-cloud]
+
+The Cirrus occurs in very great variety, and in some states of the air is
+constantly changing.  It is the first cloud that appears in serene
+weather, and is always at a great height.  The first traces of the cirrus
+are some fine whitish threads, delicately-pencilled on a clear blue sky;
+and as they increase in length others frequently appear at the sides,
+until numerous branches are formed, extending in all directions.
+Sometimes these lines cross each other and form a sort of delicate
+net-work.  In dry weather the cirrus is sharp, defined, and fibrous in
+texture, the lines vanishing off in fine points.  When the air is damp
+this cloud may be seen in the intervals of rain, but is not well defined,
+and the lines are much less fibrous.  Such cirri as these often grow into
+other varieties of cloud, and are frequently followed by rain.
+
+The cirrus may last a few minutes only, or continue for hours.  Its
+duration is shortest when near other clouds.  Although it appears to be
+stationary, it has some connexion with the motions of the atmosphere; for
+whenever, in fair weather, light variable breezes prevail, cirri are
+generally present.  When they appear in wet weather, they quickly pass
+into the cirro-stratus.
+
+According to Dalton, these clouds are from three to five miles above the
+earth's surface.  When viewed from the summits of the highest mountains
+they appear as distant as from the plains.  Another proof of their great
+height is, their continuing to be tinged by the sun's rays in the evening
+twilight with the most vivid colours, while the denser clouds are in the
+deepest shade.
+
+The cirrus appears to be stationary; but, on comparison with a fixed
+object, it will sometimes be found to make considerable progress.
+
+
+
+THE CUMULUS, OR STACKEN-CLOUD.
+
+
+    "And now the mists from earth are clouds in heaven:
+    Clouds, slowly castellating in a calm
+    Sublimer than a storm; while brighter breathes
+    O'er the whole firmament the breadth of blue,
+    Because of that excessive purity
+    Of all those hanging snow-white palaces,
+    A gentle contrast, but with power divine."
+
+The Cumulus is a day cloud; it usually has a dense, compact appearance,
+and moves with the wind.  In the latter part of a clear morning a small
+irregular spot appears suddenly at a moderate elevation.  This is the
+nucleus or commencement of the cloud, the upper part of which soon
+becomes rounded and well defined, while the lower forms an irregular
+straight line.  The cloud evidently increases in size on the convex
+surface, one heap succeeding another, until a pile of cloud is raised or
+_stacked_ into one large and elevated mass, or _stacken-cloud_, of
+stupendous magnitude and beauty, disclosing mountain summits tipped with
+the brightest silver; the whole floating along with its point to the sky,
+while the lower surface continues parallel with the horizon.
+
+                 [Picture: The Cumulus, or stacken-cloud]
+
+When several cumuli are present, they are separated by distances
+proportioned to their size: the smaller cumuli crowding the sky, while
+the larger ones are further apart.  But the bases always range in the
+same line; and the increase of each cloud keeps pace with that of its
+neighbour, the intervening spaces remaining clear.
+
+The cumulus often attains its greatest size early in the afternoon, when
+the heat of the day is most felt.  As the sun declines, this cloud
+gradually decreases, retaining, however, its characteristic form till
+towards sunset, when it is, more or less, hastily broken up and
+disappears, leaving the sky clear as in the early part of the morning.
+Its tints are often vivid, and pass one into the other in a most pleasing
+manner, during this last hour of its existence.
+
+This cloud accompanies and foretells fine weather.  In changeable weather
+it sometimes evaporates almost as soon as it is formed; or it appears
+suddenly, and then soon passes off to some other modification.
+
+In fair weather this cloud has a moderate elevation and extent, and a
+well-defined rounded surface.  Before rain it increases more rapidly than
+at other times, and appears lower in the atmosphere, with its surface
+full of loose fleeces.
+
+The formation of large cumuli to leeward, in a strong wind, indicates the
+approach of a calm with rain.  When they do not disappear or subside
+about sun-set, but continue to rise, thunder is to be expected in the
+night.
+
+Independently of the beauty and magnificence which this description of
+cloud adds to the face of nature, it serves to screen the earth from the
+direct rays of the sun; by its multiplied reflections to diffuse and, as
+it were, economise the light; and also to convey immense stores of vapour
+from the place of its origin to a region in which moisture may be wanted.
+
+
+
+THE STRATUS, OR FALL-CLOUD.
+
+
+As the Cumulus belongs to the day, so does the Stratus to the night.  It
+is the lowest of all the clouds, and actually rests upon the earth, or
+the surface of water.  It is of variable extent and thickness, and is
+called _Stratus_, _a bed_ or _covering_.  It is generally formed by the
+_sinking_ of vapour in the atmosphere, and on this account has been
+called _Fall-cloud_.  It comprehends all those level, creeping mists,
+which, in calm evenings, spread like an inundation from the valleys,
+lakes, and rivers, to the higher ground. {85}  But on the return of the
+sun the beautiful level surface of this cloud begins to put on the
+appearance of cumulus, the whole, at the same time, rising from the
+ground like a magnificent curtain.  As the cloud ascends, it is broken up
+and evaporates or passes off with the morning breeze.  The stratus has
+long been regarded as the harbinger of fine weather; and, indeed, there
+are few days in the year more serene than those whose morning breaks out
+through a stratus.
+
+                  [Picture: The Stratus, or fall-cloud]
+
+
+
+THE CIRRO-CUMULUS, OR SONDER-CLOUD.
+
+
+The cirrus having continued for some time increasing or stationary,
+usually passes either to the cirro-cumulus or to the cirro-stratus, at
+the same time descending to a lower station in the atmosphere.
+
+The Cirro-cumulus is formed from a cirrus, or a number of small separate
+cirri, passing into roundish masses, in which the extent of the cirrus is
+no longer to be seen.  This change takes place either throughout the
+whole mass at once, or progressively from one extremity to the other.  In
+either case the same effect is produced on a number of neighbouring cirri
+at the same time, and in the same order.  It appears, in some instances,
+to be hastened by the approach of other clouds.
+
+              [Picture: The Cirro-Cumulus, or sonder-cloud]
+
+The cirro-cumulus forms a very beautiful sky, exhibiting sometimes
+numerous distinct beds of small connected clouds floating at different
+heights.  It is frequent in summer, and accompanies warm, dry weather.
+On a fine summer's evening the small masses which compose this cloud, are
+often well defined, and lying quite _asunder_, or separate from one
+another; and on this account the term _sonder-cloud_ has been applied to
+this modification.  The whole sky is sometimes covered with these small
+masses.  They are occasionally, and more sparingly, seen in the intervals
+of showers, and in winter.
+
+Bloomfield, in the following beautiful lines, has noticed the appearance
+of the sonder-cloud:--
+
+    "For yet above these wafted clouds are seen
+    (In a remoter sky still more serene)
+    Others, detach'd in ranges through the air,
+    Spotless as snow, and countless as they're fair;
+    Scatter'd immensely wide from east to west,
+    The beauteous semblance of a flock at rest:
+    These, to the raptur'd mind, aloud proclaim
+    The mighty Shepherd's everlasting name."
+
+This cloud may either evaporate or disappear, or it may pass to the
+cirrus, or sink lower and become a cirro-stratus.  In stormy weather,
+before thunder, a cirro-cumulus often appears, composed of very dense and
+compact round bodies, in very close arrangement.  When accompanied by the
+cumulo-stratus, it is a sure indication of a coming storm.
+
+
+
+THE CIRRO-STRATUS, OR WANE-CLOUD.
+
+
+This cloud appears to be formed from the fibres of the cirrus sinking
+into a horizontal position, at the same time that they approach each
+other sideways.  This cloud is to be distinguished by its flatness and
+great horizontal extension, in proportion to its height; a character
+which it always retains, under all its various forms.  As this cloud is
+generally changing its figure, and slowly sinking, it has been called the
+_wane-cloud_.  A collection of these clouds, when seen in the distance,
+frequently give the idea of shoals of fish.  Sometimes the whole sky is
+so mottled with them, as to obtain for it the name of the _mackerel-back
+sky_, from its great resemblance to the back of that fish.  Sometimes
+they assume an arrangement like discs piled obliquely on each other.  But
+in this, as in other instances, the structure must be attended to rather
+than the form, for this varies much, presenting, at times, the appearance
+of parallel bars or interwoven streaks, like the grain of polished wood.
+It is thick in the middle and thinned off towards the edge.
+
+               [Picture: The Cirro-Stratus, or wane-cloud]
+
+These clouds precede wind and rain.  The near or distant approach of a
+storm may often be judged of from their greater or less abundance and
+duration.  They are almost always to be seen in the intervals of storms.
+Sometimes the cirro-stratus, and the cirro-cumulus, appear together in
+the sky, and even alternate with each other in the same cloud, presenting
+many curious changes; and a judgment may be formed of the weather likely
+to ensue, by observing which prevails at last.
+
+The cirro-stratus most frequently forms the solar and lunar halo.  Hence
+the reason of the prognostics of bad weather commonly drawn from the
+appearance of halos.
+
+
+
+THE CUMULO-STRATUS, OR TWAIN-CLOUD.
+
+
+              [Picture: The Cumulo-Stratus, or twain-cloud]
+
+This is a blending of two kinds of cloud (hence the name of
+_twain-cloud_,) and it often presents a grand and beautiful appearance,
+being a collection of large fleecy clouds overhanging a flat stratum or
+base.  When a cumulus increases rapidly a cumulo-stratus frequently forms
+around its summit, resting thereon as on a mountain, while the former
+cloud continues to be seen, in some degree, through it.  This state of
+things does not continue long.  The cumulo-stratus speedily becomes
+denser and spreads, while the upper part of the cumulus extends likewise,
+and passes into it, the base continuing as it was.  A large, lofty, dense
+cloud is thus formed which may be compared to a mushroom with a very
+thick, short stem.  The cumulo-stratus, when well formed and seen singly,
+and in profile, is quite as beautiful an object as the cumulus.  Mr.
+Howard has occasionally seen specimens constructed almost as finely as a
+Corinthian capital; the summit throwing a well-defined shadow upon the
+parts beneath.  It is sometimes built up to a great height.  The finest
+examples occur between the first appearance of the fleecy cumuli and the
+commencement of rain, while the lower atmosphere is comparatively dry,
+and during the approach of thunder storms.  The appearance of the
+cumulo-stratus, among ranges of hills, presents some interesting
+phenomena.  It appears like a curtain dropping among them and enveloping
+their summits; the hills reminding the spectator of the massy Egyptian
+columns which support the flat-roofed temples of Thebes.  But when a
+whole sky is crowded with these clouds, and the cumulus rises behind
+them, and is seen through the interstices, the whole, as it passes off in
+the distant horizon, presents to the fancy mountains covered with snow,
+intersected with darker ridges, lakes of water, rocks and towers.
+Shakspeare seems to have referred to this modification in the well-known
+lines:--
+
+    "Sometimes we see a cloud that's dragonish;
+    A vapour, sometimes, like a bear or lion,
+    A towered citadel, a pendent rock,
+    A forked mountain, a blue promontory,
+    With trees upon 't that nod unto the world,
+    And mock our eyes with air.--
+    That which is now a horse, even with a thought
+    The rack dislimns, and makes it indistinct
+    As water is in water.
+
+The _distinct_ cumulo-stratus is formed in the interval between the first
+appearance of the fleecy _cumulus_ and the commencement of rain, while
+the lower atmosphere is yet dry; also during the approach of thunder
+storms when it has frequently a reddish appearance.  Its _indistinct_
+appearance is chiefly in the longer or shorter intervals of showers of
+rain, snow, or hail.
+
+
+
+THE CUMULO-CIRRO-STRATUS; NIMBUS OR RAIN-CLOUD.
+
+
+Clouds, in any one of the preceding forms, at the same degree of
+elevation, or two or more of these forms at different elevations, may
+increase and become so dense as completely to obscure the sky; this, to
+an inexperienced observer, would seem to indicate the speedy commencement
+of rain.  But Mr. Howard is of opinion that clouds, while in any of the
+states above described, never let fall rain.
+
+Before rain the clouds always undergo a change of appearance,
+sufficiently remarkable to give them a distinct character.  This
+appearance, when the rain happens overhead, is but imperfectly seen; but
+from the observations of aeronauts, it appears that whenever a fall of
+rain occurs, and the sky is at the same time entirely overcast with
+clouds, there will be found to exist another stratum of clouds at a
+certain elevation above the former.  So, also, when the sky is entirely
+overcast and rain is altogether or generally absent, the aeronaut, upon
+traversing the canopy immediately above him, is sure to enter upon an
+upper hemisphere either perfectly cloudless or nearly so.  These remarks
+were, we believe, first made by Mr. M. Mason, and he states that they
+have been verified during many hundred ascents.
+
+In October, 1837, two ascents were made by Mr. Mason, which well
+illustrate what has been said.  On the 12th, "the sky was completely
+overspread with clouds, and torrents of rain fell incessantly during the
+whole of the day.  Upon quitting the earth, the balloon was almost
+immediately enveloped in the clouds, through which it continued to work
+its way upwards for a few seconds.  Upon emerging at the other side of
+this dense canopy, a vacant space, of some thousand feet in breadth,
+intervened, above which lay another stratum of a similar form and
+observing a similar character.  As the rain, however, still continued to
+pour from this second layer of clouds, to preserve the correctness of the
+observation, a third layer should, by right, have existed at a still
+further elevation; which, accordingly, proved to be the case.  On the
+subsequent occasion of the ascent of the same balloon, (October 17th,) an
+exactly similar condition of the atmosphere, with respect to clouds,
+prevailed; unaccompanied, however, with the slightest appearance of rain.
+No sooner had the balloon passed the layer of clouds immediately above
+the surface of the earth, than, as was anticipated, not a single cloud
+was to be found in the firmament beyond; an unbroken expanse of clear
+blue sky everywhere embracing the frothy plain that completely
+intercepted all view of the world beneath."
+
+Mr. Howard had not the advantages of a balloon to assist his
+observations.  He has noticed that during rain and before the arrival of
+the denser and lower clouds, or through their interstices, there exists,
+at a greater height, a thin light veil or a hazy appearance.  When this
+has considerably increased, the lower clouds are seen to spread till they
+unite in all points and form one uniform sheet.  The rain then commences,
+and the lower clouds arriving from the windward, move under this sheet
+and are successively lost in it.  When the latter cease to arrive, or
+when the sheet breaks, letting through the sun-beams, every one's
+experience teaches him to expect that the rain will abate or leave off.
+
+But there often follows an immediate and great addition to the quantity
+of cloud.  At the same time the darkness becomes less, because the
+arrangement, which now returns, gives free passage to the rays of light;
+the lower broken clouds rise into cumuli, and the upper sheets put on the
+various forms of the cumulo-stratus, sometimes passing to the
+cirro-cumulus.
+
+The various phenomena of the rain-cloud are best seen in a distant
+shower.  If the cumulus be the only cloud at first visible, its upper
+part is seen to become tufted with cirri.  Several adjacent clouds also
+approach and unite at its side.  The cirri increase, extending upwards
+and sideways, after which the shower is seen to commence.  At other
+times, the cirro-stratus is first formed above the cumulus, and their
+sudden union is attended with the production of cirri and rain.  In
+either case the cirri spring up in proportion to the quantity of rain
+falling, and give the cloud a character by which it is easily known at
+great distances, and which has long been called by the name of _nimbus_.
+
+When one of these arrives hastily with the wind, it brings but little
+rain, and frequently some hail or driven snow.
+
+Since rain may be produced and continue to fall from the slightest
+obscuration of the sky by the nimbus, while a cumulus or a
+cumulo-stratus, of a very dark and threatening aspect, passes on without
+discharging any until some change of state takes place; it would seem as
+if nature had destined the latter as reservoirs, in which water is
+collected from extensive regions of the air for occasionally irrigating
+particular spots in dry seasons; and by means of which it is arrested, at
+times, in its descent in wet ones.
+
+Although the nimbus is one of the least beautiful of clouds, it is,
+nevertheless, now and then adorned by the splendid colouring of the
+rainbow, which can only be seen in perfection when the dark surface of
+this cloud forms for it a background.
+
+The small ragged clouds which are sometimes seen sailing rapidly through
+the air, are called _scud_.  They consist of portions of a rain-cloud,
+probably broken up by the wind, and are dark or light according as the
+sun shines upon them.  They are the usual harbingers of rain, and, as
+such, are called by various names, such as _messengers_, _carriers_, and
+_water-waggons_.
+
+                                * * * * *
+
+In attempting to explain the production of clouds and rain, it is
+necessary to observe that the subject is beset with difficulties--the
+discussion of which does not belong to this little volume; but the
+following notice of Dr. Hutton's theory may not be out of place.
+
+It has been already stated, that the air supplies itself with moisture
+from the surface of the waters of the earth.  This it continues to do at
+all temperatures, until it is so charged with vapour that it cannot
+contain any more.  The air is then said to be _saturated_.  Now, the
+quantity of moisture which a given bulk of air can contain, depends
+entirely upon the temperature of the air for the time being.  The higher
+the temperature of the air the greater will be the quantity of vapour
+contained in it; and, although it may be perfectly invisible to the eye,
+on account of the elasticity which the heat imparts to it, yet it can
+easily be made visible by subtracting a portion of the heat.  If, for
+example, a glass of cold water be suddenly brought into a warm room,
+moisture from the air will be condensed upon the outside of the glass in
+the form of dew.  A similar change is supposed to take place when two
+currents of air having different temperatures, but both saturated with
+vapour, are mingled together; an excess of vapour is set free, which
+forms a cloud or falls down as rain.  If the currents continue to mingle
+uniformly, "the clouds soon spread in all directions, so as to occupy the
+whole horizon; while the additional moisture, incessantly brought by the
+warmer current, keeps up a constant supply for condensation, and produces
+a great and continued deposition of moisture in the form of rain.  By
+degrees, the currents completely intermingle, and acquire a uniform
+temperature; condensation then ceases; the clouds are re-dissolved; and
+the whole face of nature, after being cooled and refreshed by the
+necessary rain, is again enlivened by the sunshine, thus rendered still
+more agreeable by its contrast with the previous gloom."
+
+If the cloud, produced by the mingling of two differently heated currents
+of moist air, happen to form in the upper regions of the sky, it may be
+heavier than its own bulk of air, and will consequently begin to sink.
+Should the atmosphere near the earth be less dense than the cloud, the
+latter will continue to descend till it touches the ground, where it
+forms a mist.  If the vapour has been condensed rapidly and abundantly,
+the watery particles will form rain, hail, or snow, according to the
+temperature of the air through which they pass.  But it may happen that
+the cloud, in descending, arrives in a warmer region than that in which
+it was formed: in this case, the condensed moisture may again become
+vapour, and ascend again to a region where condensation may again take
+place.
+
+Mr. Daniell's explanation of the formation of rain differs from the above
+in some of its particulars, which are not sufficiently elementary to be
+given here; but it may be instructive to give a few of Mr. Howard's
+illustrations respecting the formation of the various clouds.  If hot
+water be exposed to cool air, it _steams_--that is, the vapour given off
+from the surface is condensed in mixing with the air; and the water thus
+produced appears in visible particles, the heat of the vapour passing
+into the air.  This effect may be seen about sunrise, in summer, on the
+surface of ponds warmed by the sun of the previous day, and also with
+water newly pumped from a well.  But the small cloud formed in these
+instances usually disappears almost as soon as formed, the air being too
+dry to allow it to remain.  But in the wide regions of the atmosphere the
+case is different, on account of the vast supply of vapour, and the
+ascent and descent of the cloud to regions which allow it to remain
+tolerably permanent.  In the fine evenings of autumn, and occasionally at
+other seasons, mists appear suddenly in the valleys, gradually filling
+these low places, and even rising to a certain height, forming a foggy
+atmosphere for the following day.  These collections of visible vapour
+resting on the earth, and often cut off so as to form a level surface
+above, so nearly resemble a sheet of water, as to have been occasionally
+mistaken for an inundation, the occurrence of the previous night.  Such
+is the origin and appearance of the _stratus_: it constitutes the fog of
+the morning, and sometimes, as at the approach of a long frost, occupies
+the lower atmosphere for several days.  But the sun, we will suppose, has
+broken through and dissipated this obscurity, and cleared the lower air.
+On looking up to the blue sky, we see some few spots showing the first
+formation of a cloud there: these little collections increase in number,
+and become clouds, heaped, as it were, on a level base, and presenting
+their rounded forms upwards; in which state they are carried along in the
+breeze, remaining distinct from each other in the sky.  This is the
+_cumulus_, or _heap_.
+
+By and by, if the clouds continue to form, and enough vapour is supplied
+from above, these heaps are seen to grow over their base like a mushroom
+or cauliflower.  Perhaps a flat top is seen forming separately, and this
+afterwards joins the simple heap of cloud; or the flat forms and the
+heaps become mixed irregularly among each other, occupying the spaces
+everywhere, till the sky becomes overcast, and presents the usual
+appearance of dense clouds.  This is the _cumulo-stratus_, or _heaped and
+flat cloud_.  It is not productive of rain, and it forms, both in summer
+and in winter, the common scenery of a full sky.
+
+On examining minutely the higher regions of the air, especially after the
+sky has been clear for some time, the spectator will probably see the
+cirrus descending from above in the form of _threads_ or _locks_ and
+_feathers_, which go on increasing until they fill the sky.  They are
+more commonly seen above the two former kinds, which float upon the clear
+air below.  On continuing to watch the cirri, they will be seen to pass
+to the intermediate form of cirro-cumulus, consisting of smaller rounded
+clouds attached to each other, or simply collected together in a flat
+aggregate, and forming the mottled or dappled sky.
+
+The cumulo-stratus is more dense and continuous in its structure; thick
+in the middle, and thinned off towards the edges.  Over-head it is a mere
+bed of haze, more or less dense.  In the horizon, when seen sideways, it
+often resembles shoals of fish, as already noticed; but it is liable to
+put on the most ragged and patchy appearances, making a very ugly sky.
+
+The nimbus, or rain cloud, is seen to the greatest advantage in profile,
+in the horizon, and at a great distance, when it often resembles a lofty
+tower raised by its greater height to a conspicuous place among the dark
+threatening clouds, and catching the sun's last rays upon its broad
+summit and sides.  In its nearer approach, it may always be known by
+being connected below with an obscurity caused by the rain it lets fall,
+and which reaches down to the horizon.
+
+In ascending from the lower valleys to the tops of lofty mountains,
+clouds may be traced through six modifications, the cirrus being seen
+from the loftiest summits, while the other forms are only skirting the
+sides of the mountains.  Mr. Mason remarks, that clouds occasionally lie
+so low, that before the balloon seems to have entirely quitted the earth,
+it has been received between their limits, and entirely enveloped within
+their watery folds.  Clouds, on the contrary, are sometimes at such a
+height, that the balloon either never comes into contact with them at
+all, or, if it passes through one layer, the aeronaut continues to behold
+another occupying a still remoter region of the skies above.
+
+As a general rule, it is stated that the natural region of clouds is a
+stratum of the atmosphere lying between the level of the first thousand
+feet, and that of one removed about ten thousand feet above it.  Of
+course it is not supposed but that clouds are occasionally found on both
+sides of the bounds here assigned to them; the mist occupies the lowest
+valleys, while, on the other hand, long after the aeronaut has attained
+the height of ten thousand feet, some faint indications of clouds may
+still be seen partially obscuring the dark blue vault above him.  As he
+continues to ascend, the blue of the sky increases in intensity; and
+should a layer of clouds shut out all view of the earth, "above and all
+around him extends a firmament dyed in purple of the intensest hue; and
+from the apparent regularity of the horizontal plane on which it rests,
+bearing the resemblance of a large inverted bowl of dark blue porcelain
+standing upon a rich Mosaic floor or tesselated pavement.  Ascending
+still higher, the colour of the sky, especially about the zenith, is to
+be compared with the deepest shade of Prussian blue."
+
+                 [Picture: Various forms of hail-stones]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+ON HAIL--THE HAIL-STORMS OF FRANCE--DISASTROUS EFFECTS OF HAIL--THE
+HAIL-STORMS OF SOUTH AMERICA--THEIR SURPRISING EFFECTS--ORIGIN AND NATURE
+OF HAIL--PERIODICAL FALLS OF HAIL--HAIL CLOUDS--HAILSTONES--THEIR VARIOUS
+FORMS--EXTRAORDINARY SIZE OF HAILSTONES.
+
+As hail seems to be nothing more than frozen rain, it is necessary to
+collect a few particulars respecting it in this place.
+
+Great Britain is essentially a rain country; but there are some parts of
+the world which have obtained the unhappy distinction of being _hail_
+countries: such, for example, as some of the most beautiful provinces of
+France, which are frequently devastated by hail-storms.  One of the most
+tremendous hail-storms on record is that which occurred in that country
+in July 1788.  This fearful storm was ushered in by a dreadful and almost
+total darkness which suddenly overspread the whole country.  In a single
+hour the whole face of nature was so entirely changed, that no person who
+had slept during the tempest could have believed himself in the same part
+of the world when he awoke.  Instead of the smiling bloom of summer, and
+the rich prospects of a forward autumn, which were just before spread
+over the face of that fertile and beautiful country, it now presented the
+dreary aspect of an arctic winter.  The soil was changed into a morass;
+the standing corn beaten into a quagmire; the vines were broken to
+pieces, and their branches bruised in the same manner; the fruit-trees of
+every kind were demolished, and the hail lay unmelted in heaps like rocks
+of solid ice.  Even the robust forest trees were incapable of
+withstanding the fury of the tempest; and a large wood of chesnut trees,
+in particular, was so much damaged, that it presented, after the storm,
+little more than bare and naked trunks.  The vines were so miserably
+hacked and battered, that four years were estimated as the shortest
+period in which they could become again in any degree productive.  Of the
+sixty-six parishes included in the district of Pontoise, forty-three were
+entirely desolated; while, of the remaining twenty-three, some lost
+two-thirds, and others above half their harvest.
+
+This storm began in the south, and proceeded in two parallel bands from
+the south-west to the north-east; the extent of one of them being 175
+leagues, and of the other 200; thus traversing nearly the whole length of
+that great kingdom, and even a portion of the Low countries.  The mean
+breadth of the eastern portion was four leagues, and of the western two:
+and, what is very remarkable, the interval between the two bands,
+amounting to five leagues, was deluged with heavy rain.  The largest of
+the hail-stones weighed half a pound each.
+
+The progress of this storm, which was from south to north, was at the
+rate of 16.5 leagues an hour; and the velocity of the two bands was
+precisely the same.  The continuance of the hail was limited to seven or
+eight minutes, at each of the principal stations marked.
+
+There are instances, however, on record, in which hail has produced even
+more tremendous results than those above recorded.  In some parts of
+South America hail-stones are sometimes so large and so hard, and fall
+with such violence, that large animals are killed by them.  Mr. Darwin,
+encamping at the foot of the Sierra Tapalguen, says:--"One of the men had
+already found thirteen deer lying dead, and I saw their fresh hides.
+Another of the party, a few minutes after my arrival, brought in seven
+more.  Now I well know that one man without dogs could hardly have killed
+seven deer in a week.  The men believed they had seen about fifteen dead
+ostriches, (part of one of which we had for dinner;) and they said that
+several were running about evidently blind in one eye.  Numbers of small
+birds, as ducks, hawks, and partridges, were killed.  I saw one of the
+latter with a black mark on its back, as if it had been struck with a
+paving-stone.  A fence of thistle-stalks round the hovel was nearly
+broken down; and my informer, putting his head out to see what was the
+matter, received a severe cut, and now wears a bandage.  The storm was
+said to have been of limited extent: we certainly saw, from our last
+night's bivouac, a dense cloud and lightning in this direction.  It is
+marvellous how such strong animals as deer could thus have been killed;
+but, I have no doubt, from the evidence I have given, that the story is
+not in the least exaggerated."  Dr. Malcolmson informed Mr. Darwin, that
+he witnessed, in 1831, in India, a hail-storm, which killed numbers of
+large birds, and much injured the cattle.  These hail-stones were flat;
+one was ten inches in circumference; and another weighed two ounces.
+They ploughed up a gravel-walk like musket-balls, and passed through
+glass windows, making round holes, but not cracking them.
+
+There is much in the origin and formation of hail that cannot well be
+explained.  Volta regarded the formation of small flakes of ice, the
+kernels of future hail-stones, in the month of July, during the hottest
+hours of the day, as one of the most difficult phenomena in nature to
+explain.  It is difficult to account for the comparative scarcity of
+hail-showers in winter; as also, for the great size which hailstones are
+often known to attain.
+
+It appears from certain resemblances in the descents of rain, snow, and
+hail, that they have a common origin, their different formations being
+explained by difference of temperature.  Howard has observed a huge
+nimbus affording hard snowballs and distinct flakes of snow at the same
+time.  Hail and rain are by no means uncommon from the same cloud.  The
+size of a cloud may be such, or clouds may exist in different elevations,
+which in an upper region produce hail, in a lower region snow, and at a
+still lower elevation rain.  Rain may also form in an upper region of the
+sky, and descend into a colder stratum of the atmosphere, and be frozen
+into hail.  Hail generally precedes storms of rain.
+
+Change of wind and the action of opposite currents, so necessary for the
+production of rain, are also frequent during hail-storms.  While clouds
+are agitated with the most rapid motions, rain generally falls in
+greatest abundance; and if the agitation be very great it generally
+hails.  Before the descent of hail a noise is heard, a particular kind of
+crackling, which has been compared to the emptying of a bag of walnuts.
+
+The descent of hail in some countries appears to occur at particular
+periods.  In the central parts of France, Italy, and Spain, it usually
+hails most abundantly during the warmest hours of the day in spring and
+summer, and in Europe generally it falls principally during the day; but
+there are examples recorded of great hail-storms which have taken place
+during the night.  Near the equator, it seldom hails in places situated
+at a lower level than 350 fathoms, for, although the hail may be formed,
+the warmth of the regions prevents it from falling in that state.
+
+The appearance of hail clouds seems to be distinguished from other stormy
+clouds by a very remarkable shadowing.  Their edges present a multitude
+of indentations, and their surfaces disclose here and there immense
+irregular projections.  Arago has seen hail-clouds cover with a thick
+veil the whole extent of a valley, at a time when the neighbouring hills
+enjoyed a fine sky and an agreeable temperature.
+
+Hailstones of similar forms are produced at similar levels.  They are
+smaller on the tops of mountains than in the neighbouring plains.  If the
+temperature or the wind alter, the figures of the hailstones become
+immediately changed.  Hailstones of the form of a six-sided pyramid have
+been known to change, on the wind changing to the north-east, to convex
+lenses, so transparent and nicely formed, that they magnified objects
+without distorting them.  Some hailstones are globular, others elongated,
+and others armed with different points.
+
+In the centres of hailstones small flakes of spungy snow are frequently
+found, and this usually is the only opaque point in them.  Sometimes the
+surface is covered with dust, like fine flour, and is something between
+hail and snow.  This never falls during summer in southerly countries.
+In the Andes hailstones from five to seven lines in diameter are
+sometimes formed of layers of different degrees of transparency, so as to
+permit rings of ice to be separated from them with a very slight blow.
+In Orkney, hailstones have fallen as finely polished as marbles, of a
+greyish white colour, not unlike fragments of light-coloured marble.
+Hailstones are often so hard and elastic, that those which fall on the
+stones rebound without breaking to the height of several yards; and they
+have been known to be projected from a cloud almost horizontally, and
+with such velocity as to pierce glass windows with a clear round hole.
+
+On the 7th May, 1822, some remarkable hailstones fell at Bonn, on the
+Rhine.  Their general size was about an inch and a half in diameter, and
+their weight 300 grains.  When picked up whole, which was not always the
+case, their general outline was elliptical, with a white, or nearly
+opaque spot in the centre, about which were arranged concentric layers,
+increasing in transparency to the outside.  Some of them exhibited a
+beautiful star-like and fibrous arrangement, the result of rows of air
+bubbles dispersed in different radii.  The figures at the head of this
+chapter show the external and internal appearances of these hailstones.
+
+The smaller figures represent pyramidal hail, common in France, and
+occasionally in Great Britain.
+
+Brown hailstones have been noticed.  Humboldt saw hail fall of the colour
+of blood.
+
+On the 15th July, 1808, Howard noticed, in Gloucestershire, hailstones
+from three to nine inches in circumference; appearing like fragments of a
+vast plate of ice which had been broken in its descent to the earth.
+
+On the 4th June, 1814, Dr. Crookshank noticed, in North America,
+hailstones of from thirteen to fifteen inches in circumference.  They
+seemed to consist of numerous smaller stones fused together.
+
+On the 24th July, 1818, during a storm in Orkney, Mr. Neill picked up
+hailstones weighing from four ounces to nearly half a pound.
+
+                          [Picture: Rain gauges]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+METHOD OF MEASURING THE QUANTITY OF RAIN THAT FALLS--THE RAIN
+GAUGE--METHODS OF OBSERVING FOR RAIN AND SNOW--EFFECTS OF ELEVATION ON
+THE QUANTITY OF RAIN--DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TOP OF A TALL BUILDING AND
+THE SUMMIT OF A MOUNTAIN--SIZE OF DROPS OF RAIN--VELOCITY OF THEIR
+FALL--QUANTITY OF RAIN IN DIFFERENT LATITUDES--EXTRAORDINARY FALLS OF
+RAIN--REMARKS ON THE RAIN OF THIS COUNTRY--INFLUENCE OF THE MOON--ABSENCE
+OF RAIN--REMARKABLE DROUGHT IN SOUTH AMERICA--ITS TERRIBLE EFFECTS AND
+CONSEQUENCES--ARTIFICIAL RAINS.
+
+The quantity of rain which falls at different parts of the earth's
+surface is very variable; and for the purpose of measuring it instruments
+called _Rain-gauges_ have been contrived.  The simplest form is a funnel
+three or four inches high, and having an area of one hundred square
+inches.  This may be placed in the mouth of a large bottle, and, after
+each fall of rain, the quantity may be measured by a glass jar divided
+into inches and parts.  This simple gauge being placed on the ground in
+an open spot, will evidently represent a portion of the ground, and will
+show the depth of rain which would cover it at and about that spot,
+supposing the ground to be horizontal, and that the water could neither
+flow off nor sink into the soil.  Thus, by taking notice of the quantity
+of rain which falls day by day, and year by year, and taking the average
+of many years, we get the mean annual quantity of rain for the particular
+spot in question.  By an extension of these observations, it is evident
+that the mean annual fall of rain may be known for a district or a
+kingdom.
+
+A more convenient form of rain-gauge than the one just noticed, is made
+by placing the funnel at the top of a brass or copper cylinder, connected
+with which at the lower point, is a glass tube with a scale, measuring
+inches and tenths of an inch.  The water stands at the same height in the
+glass tube as it does in the cylinder, and being visible in the tube the
+height can be immediately read on the scale.  The cylinder and the tube
+are so constructed, that the sum of the areas of their sections is a
+given part, such as a tenth of the area of the mouth of the funnel; so
+that each inch of water in the tube is equal to the tenth of an inch of
+water which enters the mouth of the funnel.  A stop-cock is added for
+drawing off the water from the cylinder after each observation is noted
+down.
+
+Some rain-gauges are constructed for showing the quantity of rain which
+falls from each of the four principal quarters.  Others are made so as to
+register, themselves, the quantity of rain fallen.  One of this kind, by
+Mr. Crosley, consists of a funnel through which the rain passes to a
+vibrating trough; when, after a sufficient quantity has fallen into its
+higher side, it sinks down and discharges the rain which escapes by a
+tube.  The vibrating action of this trough moves a train of wheel-work
+and indices, which register upon a dial plate the quantity of rain
+fallen.
+
+Whatever form of rain-gauge is adopted, it must be placed in an exposed
+situation, at a distance from all buildings, and trees, and other objects
+likely to interfere with the free descent of rain into the funnel.  It is
+usual, in rainy weather, to observe the quantity of water in the gauge
+every morning; but this does not seem to be often enough, considering how
+freely water evaporates in an exposed situation.  An error may also arise
+from some of the water adhering to the sides of the vessel, unless an
+allowance is made for the quantity thus lost by a contrivance such as the
+following:--Let a sponge be made damp, yet so that no water can be
+squeezed from it, and with this collect all the water which adheres to
+the funnel and cylinder, after as much as possible has been drawn off;
+then, if the sponge be squeezed, and the water from it be received in a
+vessel which admits of measuring its quantity, an estimate may be made of
+the depth due to it; and this being added to the depth given by the
+instrument, would probably show correctly the required depth of rain.
+
+When snow has fallen the rain-gauge may not give a correct quantity, as a
+portion of it may be blown out, or a greater quantity may have fallen
+than the mouth will contain.  In such cases, it is recommended to take a
+cylindrical tube and press it perpendicularly into the snow, and it will
+bring out with it a cylinder equal to the depth.  This, when melted, will
+give the quantity of water which can be measured as before.  The
+proportion of snow to water is about seventeen to one; and hail to water,
+about eight to one.  These quantities, however, may vary according to the
+circumstances under which the snow or hail has fallen, and the time they
+have been upon the ground.
+
+The rain-gauge should be placed as near the surface of the ground as
+possible; for it is a perplexing circumstance, that the rain-gauge
+indicates very different quantities of rain as falling upon the very same
+spot, according to the different heights at which it is placed.  Thus it
+has been found, that the annual depth of rain at the top of Westminster
+Abbey was 12.1 inches nearly, while, on the top of a house sixteen feet
+lower, it was rather more than 18.1 inches, and on the ground, in the
+garden of the house, it was 22.6 inches.  M. Arago has also found from
+observations made during twelve years, that on the terrace of the
+Observatory at Paris the annual depth was about 2.25 inches less than in
+the court thirty yards below.
+
+It would naturally be expected from these observations, that less rain
+falls on high ground than at the level of the sea.  Such however is not
+the case, except on abrupt elevations; where the elevation is made by the
+natural and gradual slope of the earth's surface, the quantity of rain is
+greater on the mountain than in the plain.  Thus, on the coast of
+Lancashire, there is an annual fall of 39 inches; while at Easthwaite,
+among the mountains in the same county, the annual depth of rain amounts
+to 86 inches.  By comparing the registers at Geneva and the convent of
+the Great St. Bernard, it appears that at the former place, by a mean of
+thirty-two years, the annual fall of rain is about 30.75 inches; while at
+the latter, by a mean of twelve years, it is a little over 60 inches.
+
+In order to explain these remarkable differences, it must not be supposed
+that the clouds extend down to the ground, so as to cause more rain at
+the foot of Westminster Abbey than on its roof.  There is no doubt that
+in moist weather the air contains more water near the ground than a few
+hundred feet above it; and probably, the same cause which determined a
+fall from the cloud, would also throw down the moisture floating at a low
+elevation.  Much rain also proceeds from drifting showers, of short
+duration, and the current moves more slowly along the surface, and allows
+the drops to fall as fast as they are formed.  In hilly countries, on the
+contrary, clouds and vapours rest on the summits without descending into
+the plains, and, according to some, the hills attract electricity from
+the clouds, and thus occasion rain to fall.  Mr. Phillips supposes that
+each drop of rain continues to increase in size from the commencement to
+the end of its descent, and as it passes successively through the moist
+strata of the air, obtains its increase from them; while the rain which
+falls on the mountain may leave these moist strata untouched, so that
+they may, in fact, not form rain at all.
+
+The drops of rain are of unequal size, as may be seen from the marks made
+by the first drops of a shower upon any smooth surface.  They vary in
+size from perhaps the twenty-fifth to a quarter of an inch in diameter.
+It is supposed that in parting from the clouds they fall with increasing
+speed, until the increasing resistance of the air becomes equal to their
+weight, when they continue to fall with an uniform velocity.  A
+thunder-shower pours down much faster than a drizzling rain.  A flake of
+snow, being perhaps nine times more expanded than water, descends thrice
+as slow.  But hailstones are often several inches in length, and fall
+with a velocity of seventy feet in a second, or at the rate of about
+fifty miles an hour, and hence the destructive power of these missiles in
+stripping and tearing off fruit and foliage.
+
+The annual quantity of rain decreases from the equator to the poles, as
+appears from the following table, which gives the name of the station,
+its latitude, and the average annual number of inches of rain:--
+
+Coast of Malabar            lat. 11 degrees 30'     135.5 inches.
+                            N.
+At Grenada, Antilles        12 degrees              126
+At Cape Francois, St.       19 degrees 46'          120
+Domingo
+At Calcutta                 22 degrees 23'          81
+At Rome                     41 degrees 54'          39
+In England                  50 to 55 degrees        31
+At St. Petersburgh          59 degrees 16'          16
+At Uleaborg                 65 degrees 30'          13.5
+
+The number of rainy days, on the contrary, increases from the equator to
+the poles.
+
+From 12 to 43 degrees N. lat.--the number of rainy days in    78
+the year amounts to
+From 43 to 46 degrees                                         103
+From 46 to 50 degrees                                         134
+From 50 to 60 degrees                                         161
+
+The greatest depth of rain which falls in the Indian ocean is during the
+time when the periodical winds, called the _monsoons_, change their
+direction.  When the winds blow directly in-shore the rains are very
+abundant, so much so that, after a continuance of twenty-four hours, the
+surface of the sea has been covered with a stratum of fresh water, good
+enough for drinking, and ships have actually filled their casks from it.
+Colonel Sykes observes, that the deluge-like character of a monsoon in
+the Ghats of Western India, is attested by the annual amount of 302.25
+inches, at Malcolmpait, on the Mahabuleshwar Hills.
+
+A great depth of rain in a short time has occasionally been witnessed in
+Europe.  At Genoa, on the 25th of October, 1822, a depth of thirty inches
+of rain fell in one day.  At Joyeuse, on the 9th of October, 1827,
+thirty-one inches of rain fell in twenty-two hours.  Previous to the
+great floods of Moray, in 1829, the rain is described as being so thick
+that the very air itself seemed to be descending in one mass of water
+upon the earth.  Nothing could withstand it.  The best finished windows
+were ineffectual against it, and every room exposed to the north-east was
+deluged.  The smaller animals, the birds, and especially game, of all
+kinds, were destroyed in great numbers by the rain alone, and the mother
+partridge, with her brood and her mate, were found chilled to death
+amidst the drenching wet.  It was also noticed, that, as soon as the
+flood touched the foundation of a dry stone wall, the sods on the top of
+it became as it were alive with mice, all forcing their way out to escape
+from the inundation which threatened their citadel; and in the stables,
+where the water was three feet deep, rats and moles were swimming about
+among the buildings.
+
+Among the Andes it is said to rain perpetually; but in Peru it never
+rains, moisture being supplied during a part of the year by thick fogs,
+called _garuas_.  In Egypt, and some parts of Arabia, it seldom rains at
+all, but the dews are heavy, and supply with moisture the few plants of
+the sandy regions.
+
+There is a great variation in the quantity of rain that falls in the same
+latitude, on the different sides of the same continent, and particularly
+of the same island.  The mean fall of rain at Edinburgh, on the eastern
+coast, is 26 inches; while at Glasgow, on the western coast, in nearly
+the same latitude, it is 40 inches.  At North Shields, on the eastern
+coast, it is 25 inches; while at Coniston, in Lancashire, in nearly the
+same latitude, on the western coast, it is 85 inches.
+
+The amount of rain in a district may be changed by destroying or forming
+forests, and by the inclosure and drainage of land.  By thinning off the
+wood in the neighbourhood of Marseilles, there has been a striking
+decrease of rain in fifty years.
+
+In Mr. Howard's observations on the climate of this country, he has
+found, on an average of years, that it rains every other day; that more
+rain falls in the night than in the day; that the greatest quantity of
+rain falls in autumn, and the least in winter; that the quantity which
+falls in autumn is nearly double that in spring; that most rain falls in
+October and least in February, and that May comes nearest to the mean:
+that one year in every five, in this country, may be expected to be
+extremely dry, and one in ten extremely wet.
+
+According to Dalton, the mean annual amount of rain and dew for England
+and Wales is 36 inches.  The mean all over the globe is stated to be 34
+inches.
+
+There seems to be some real connexion between the changes of the moon and
+the weather.  Mr. Daniell says, "No observation is more general; and on
+no occasion, perhaps, is the almanac so frequently consulted as in
+forming conjectures upon the state of the weather.  The common remark,
+however, goes no further than that changes from wet to dry, and from dry
+to wet, generally happen at the changes of the moon.  When to this result
+of universal experience we add the philosophical reasons for the
+existence of tides in the aerial ocean, we cannot doubt that such a
+connexion exists.  The subject, however, is involved in much obscurity."
+At Viviers, it was observed that the number of rainy days was greatest at
+the first quarter, and least at the last.  Mr. Howard has observed that,
+in this country, when the moon has south declination, there falls but a
+moderate quantity of rain, and that the quantity increases till she has
+attained the greatest northern declination.  He thinks there is "evidence
+of a great _tidal wave_, or swell in the atmosphere, caused by the moon's
+attraction, preceding her in her approach to us, and following slowly as
+she departs from these latitudes."
+
+Most dry climates are subject to periodical droughts.  In Australia, they
+return after every ten or twelve years, and are then followed by
+excessive rains, which gradually become less and less till another
+drought is the consequence.
+
+When Mr. Darwin was in South America, he passed through a district which
+had long been suffering from dry weather.  The first rain that had fallen
+during that year was on the 17th of May, when it rained lightly for about
+five hours.  "With this shower," he says, "the farmers, who plant corn
+near the sea-coast, where the atmosphere is more humid, would break up
+the ground; with a second, put the seed in; and, if a third should fall,
+they would reap in the spring a good harvest.  It was interesting to
+watch the effect of this trifling amount of moisture.  Twelve hours
+afterwards the ground appeared as dry as ever; yet, after an interval of
+ten days, all the hills were faintly tinged with green patches; the grass
+being sparingly scattered in hair-like fibres a full inch in length.
+Before this shower every part of the surface was bare as on a high road."
+
+A fortnight after this shower had fallen, Mr. Darwin took an excursion to
+a part of the country to which the shower had not extended.  "We had,
+therefore," he says, "in the first part of our journey a most faint tinge
+of green, which soon faded away.  Even where brightest, it was scarcely
+sufficient to remind one of the fresh turf and budding flowers during the
+spring of other countries.  While travelling through these deserts, one
+feels like a prisoner, shut up in a gloomy courtyard, longing to see
+something green, and to smell a moist atmosphere."
+
+The effects of a great drought in the Pampas are thus described.  "The
+period included between the years 1827 and 1830 is called the 'gran seco'
+or the great drought.  During this time so little rain fell, that the
+vegetation, even to the thistles, failed; the brooks were dried up, and
+the whole country assumed the appearance of a dusty high road.  This was
+especially the case in the northern part of the province of Buenos Ayres,
+and the southern part of St. Fe.  Very great numbers of birds, wild
+animals, cattle, and horses, perished from the want of food and water.  A
+man told me that the deer used to come into his courtyard to the well
+which he had been obliged to dig to supply his own family with water; and
+that the partridges had hardly strength to fly away when pursued.  The
+lowest estimation of the loss of cattle in the province of Buenos Ayres
+alone, was taken at one million head.  A proprietor at San Pedro had
+previously to these years 20,000 cattle; at the end not one remained.
+San Pedro is situated in the midst of the finest country, and even now
+again abounds with animals; yet, during the latter part of the 'gran
+seco' live cattle were brought in vessels for the consumption of the
+inhabitants.  The animals roamed from their _estancias_, and wandering
+far to the southward, were mingled together in such multitudes that a
+government commission was sent from Buenos Ayres to settle the disputes
+of the owners.  Sir Woodbine Parish informed me of another and very
+curious source of dispute; the ground being so long dry, such quantities
+of dust were blown about, that in this open country the landmarks became
+obliterated, and people could not tell the limits of their estates.
+
+"I was informed by an eye-witness, that the cattle in herds of thousands
+rushed into the river Parana, and being exhausted by hunger they were
+unable to crawl up the muddy banks, and thus were drowned.  The arm which
+runs by San Pedro was so full of putrid carcasses, that the master of a
+vessel told me, that the smell rendered it quite impossible to pass that
+way.  Without doubt, several hundred thousand animals thus perished in
+the river.  Their bodies, when putrid, floated down the stream, and many
+in all probability were deposited in the estuary of the Plata.  All the
+small rivers became highly saline, and this caused the death of vast
+numbers in particular spots, for when an animal drinks of such water it
+does not recover.  I noticed, but probably it was the effect of a gradual
+increase, rather than of any one period, that the smaller streams in the
+Pampas were paved with bones.  Subsequently to this unusual drought, a
+very rainy season commenced, which caused great floods.  Hence it is
+almost certain, that some thousands of these skeletons were buried by the
+deposits of the very next year.  What would be the opinion of a geologist
+viewing such an enormous collection of bones, of all kinds of animals and
+of all ages, thus embedded in one thick earthy mass?  Would he not
+attribute it to a flood having crept over the surface of the land, rather
+than to the common order of things?"
+
+Captain Owen mentions a curious effect of a drought on the elephants at
+Benguela on the western coast of Africa:--"A number of these animals had
+some time since entered the town in a body to possess themselves of the
+wells, not being able to procure any water in the country.  The
+inhabitants mustered, when a desperate conflict ensued, which terminated
+in the ultimate discomfiture of the invaders, but not until they had
+killed one man, and wounded several others."  The town is said to have a
+population of nearly three thousand.  Dr. Malcolmson states, that during
+a great drought in India the wild animals entered the tents of some
+troops at Ellore, and that a hare drank out of a vessel held by the
+adjutant of the regiment.
+
+In connexion with droughts may be mentioned a plan {133} proposed by Mr.
+Espy of the United States of America, for remedying them by means of
+_artificial rains_.  That gentleman says, that if a large body of heated
+air be made to ascend in a column, a large cloud will be generated, and
+that such cloud will contain in itself a self-sustaining power, which may
+move from the place over which it was formed, and cause the air over
+which it passes to rise up into it and thus form more cloud and rain,
+until the rain may become general.
+
+It is proposed to form this ascending column of air by kindling large
+fires which, Mr. Espy says, are known to produce rain.  Humboldt speaks
+of a mysterious connexion between volcanoes and rain, and says that when
+a volcano bursts out in South America in a dry season, it sometimes
+changes it to a rainy one.  The Indians of Paraguay, when their crops are
+threatened by drought, set fire to the vast plains with the intention of
+producing rain.  In Louisiana, heavy rains have been known from time
+immemorial to succeed the conflagration of the prairies; and the
+inhabitants of Nova Scotia bear testimony to a similar result from the
+burning of their forests.  Great battles are said to produce rain, and it
+is even stated that the spread of manufactures in a particular district
+deteriorates the climate of such district, the ascending current
+occasioned by the tall chimney of every manufactory tending to produce
+rain.  In Manchester, for example, it is said to rain six days out of
+seven.
+
+             [Picture: Decorative picture of person by pool]
+
+       [Picture: Decorative picture of pastoral scene with rainbow]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+THE RAINBOW--DECOMPOSITION OF WHITE LIGHT BY THE PRISM--FORMATION OF
+PRIMARY AND SECONDARY BOWS--RAINBOWS IN MOUNTAIN REGIONS--THE RAINBOW A
+SACRED EMBLEM--LUNAR RAINBOW--LIGHT DECOMPOSED BY CLOUDS--THEIR BEAUTIFUL
+COLOURS--EXAMPLES.
+
+By means of rain and rain clouds we get that beautiful appearance so well
+known as the rainbow.  In order to form some idea of the manner in which
+the rainbow is produced, it is necessary to know something of the manner
+in which light is composed.  Sir Isaac Newton was the first philosopher
+who clearly explained the composition of light, as derived from the sun.
+He admitted a ray of the sun into a darkened room through a small hole in
+the window shutters; in front of this hole he placed a glass prism, and
+at a considerable distance behind the prism he placed a white screen.  If
+there had been no prism between the hole and the screen, the ray of light
+would have proceeded in the direction of the dotted lines, and a bright
+spot would have fallen upon the floor of the room, as shown in the
+figure.  But the effect of the prism is to refract or bend the ray out of
+its ordinary course, and in doing so it does not produce a white spot
+upon the screen, but a long streak of beautiful colours, in the order
+marked in the figure, red being at the bottom, then orange, yellow,
+green, blue, indigo, and violet at the top.
+
+                 [Picture: Decomposition of white light]
+
+In order to account for the production of these colours from a ray of
+light, Newton supposed that such a ray is actually made up of seven
+distinct colours, which being mixed in proper proportions neutralize or
+destroy each other.  In order to account for the decomposition of the ray
+of white light by the prism, and for the lengthened form of the
+_spectrum_, as it is called, he supposed that each of the seven coloured
+rays was capable of being bent by the prism in a different manner from
+the rest.  Thus, in the figure, the red appears to be less bent out of
+the direction of the original ray than the orange--the orange less than
+the yellow, and so on until we arrive at the violet, which is bent most
+of all.
+
+It is scarcely necessary to remark, that these views were found to be
+correct, except as regards the number of colours in the solar spectrum;
+for it is now ascertained, with tolerable certainty, that there are only
+three primitive or pure colours in nature, and these are _red_, _yellow_,
+and _blue_; and it is supposed that by mingling two or more of these
+colours in various proportions, all the colours in nature are produced.
+
+Now, to apply this explanation to the production of the rainbow, which is
+usually seen under the following circumstances:--The observer is placed
+with his back to the sun, and at some distance before him rain is
+falling,--the air between the sun and the rain being tolerably clear.  He
+then often sees two circular arcs or bows immediately in front of him.
+The colours of the inner bow are the more striking and vivid of the two.
+Each exhibits the same series of colours as in the spectrum formed by the
+prism; namely, _red_, _orange_, _yellow_, _green_, _blue_, _indigo_, and
+_violet_; but the arrangement of these colours is different in the two
+bows, for while in the inner bow the lower edge is violet and the upper
+red, in the outer bow the lower edge is red and the upper violet.  The
+production of both bows is due to the refraction and reflexion of light,
+the drops of rain forming, in fact, the prism which decomposes the white
+light of the sun.  The colours in the rainbow have the same proportional
+breadth as the spaces in the prismatic spectrum.  "The bow is,
+therefore," as Sir D. Brewster remarks, "only an infinite number of
+prismatic spectra, arranged in the circumference of a circle; and it
+would be easy, by a circular arrangement of prisms, or by covering up all
+the central part of a large lens, to produce a small arch of exactly the
+same colours.  All we require, therefore, to form a rainbow, is a great
+number of transparent bodies capable of forming a great number of
+prismatic spectra from the light of the sun."
+
+The manner in which the drops of rain act as prisms, may, perhaps, be
+better understood with the assistance of the following diagram.  Suppose
+the two lower circles to represent drops of rain which assist in forming
+the primary bow, and the two upper circles similar drops which help to
+produce the secondary bow; and let S represent rays of the sun falling
+upon them.  The rays of the sun fall upon every part of the drop; but, as
+those which pass through or near the centre come out on the opposite side
+and form a focus, they need not be taken into account.  Those rays,
+however, which fall on the upper side of the drops, will be bent or
+refracted, the red rays least, and the violet most; and will fall upon
+the back of the drop in such a manner as to be reflected to the under
+part of the drop; on quitting which they will be again refracted, so as
+to be seen at E, where there will appear to the observer a prismatic
+spectrum with the red uppermost, and the violet undermost.  These remarks
+apply to those drops only which form the upper part of the bow, but it is
+obvious that a similar reasoning applied to the drops to the right and
+left of the observer, will complete the bow.  The inclination of the red
+ray and the violet ray to the sun's rays, is 42 degrees 2' for the red,
+and 40 degrees 17' for the violet, so that the breadth of the primary bow
+is 1 degrees 45'.
+
+Thus it will be seen, that the primary bow is produced by two
+refractions, and one intermediate reflection of the rays that fall on the
+upper sides of the drops of rain.  It is different with the rays which
+enter the drops below.  The red and violet rays will be bent or refracted
+in different directions; and, after being twice reflected, will be again
+bent towards the eye of the observer at E; but in this case the violet
+forms the upper part, and the red the under part of the spectrum.  The
+inclination of these rays to the sun's rays at S, is 50 degrees 58' for
+the red ray, and 54 degrees 10' for the violet ray; so that the breadth
+of the bow is 3 degrees 10', and the distance between the primary and
+secondary bows is 8 degrees 15'.  Hence the secondary is formed in the
+outside of the primary bow, with its colours reversed, in consequence of
+their being produced by two reflexions and two refractions.  The colours
+of the secondary bow are much fainter than those of the primary, because
+they undergo two reflexions instead of one.
+
+There is something very wonderful in the rapidity and perfection with
+which these natural prisms, the falling drops of rain, produce these
+effects.  In the inconceivably short space of time occupied by a drop
+falling through those parts of the sky which form the proper angles with
+the sun's rays and the eye of the observer, the light enters the surface
+of the drop, undergoes within it one or two reflexions, two refractions
+and decompositions, and has reached the eye; and all this is done in a
+portion of time too small for the drop to have fallen through a space
+which we have the means of measuring.
+
+It will be understood, that since the eyes of different observers cannot
+be in precisely the same place at the same time, no two observers can see
+the _same_ rainbow; that is to say, the bow produced by one set of drops
+to the eye of one observer is produced by another set of drops to the eye
+of another observer.
+
+A rainbow can never be greater than a semicircle, unless the spectator is
+on elevated ground; for if it were greater than a semicircle the centre
+of the bow would be above the horizon, while the sun, which must be in a
+line drawn through that centre and the eye of the observer, would be
+below the horizon: but in such a case, the sun could not shine on the
+drops of rain, and consequently there could be no rainbow.
+
+When the rain cloud is of small extent only a portion of a bow is
+visible; when the cloud overspreads a large part of the sky a perfect bow
+appears.  Sometimes the bow may be traced across a portion of blue sky,
+or it may appear to rest on the ground.  In the former case, there are
+vapours in the air too thin to be seen, but sufficient to refract and
+reflect the rays of light; in the latter, the drops of rain, adhering to
+the grass and foliage, produce the same effect.  A coloured bow, similar
+to that produced by rain, is sometimes seen in the spray of a fountain or
+of a water-fall, and also in mists that lie low upon the ground.
+
+In mountainous and stormy regions rainbows are often seen to great
+advantage.  In the islands off the Irish coast the author of "Letters
+from the Irish Islands," describes the rainbow of winter "as gradually
+advancing before the lowering clouds, sweeping with majestic stride
+across the troubled ocean, then, as it gained the beach, and seemed
+almost within one's grasp, vanishing amid the storm of which it had been
+the lovely but treacherous forerunner.  It is, I suppose, a consequence
+of our situation, and the close connexion between sea and mountain, that
+the rainbows here are so frequent and so peculiarly beautiful.  Of an
+amazing breadth, and of colours vivid beyond description, I know not
+whether most to admire this aerial phenomenon, when suspended in the
+western sky, one end of the bow sinks behind the Island of Boffin, while
+at the distance of several leagues the other rests upon the misty hills
+of Ennis Turc; or when, at a later hour of the day, it has appeared
+stretched across the ample sides of Mulbrea, penetrating far into the
+deep blue waters that flow at its base.  With feelings of grateful
+recollection, too, we may hail the repeated visits of this heavenly
+messenger, occasionally as often as five or six times in the course of
+the same day, in a country exposed to such astonishing, and, at times,
+almost incessant floods of rain."
+
+The beauty of the rainbow is not the only reason why we should regard it
+with interest.  The rainbow was appointed by God himself as a sign of the
+covenant of mercy, made with Noah and with all mankind, after the flood.
+The words in which this declaration was made to mankind, are recorded in
+the Book of Genesis, chap. ix. ver. 11 to 16.
+
+Burnet, in his "Sacred Theory of the Earth," has some remarks on the
+first appearance of the rainbow to the inhabitants of the earth after the
+deluge.  He says, "How proper and how apposite a sign would this be for
+Providence to pitch upon, to confirm the promise made to Noah and his
+posterity, that the world should be no more destroyed by water!  It had a
+secret connexion with the effect itself, and was so far a natural sign;
+but, however, appearing first after the deluge, and in a watery cloud,
+there was, methinks, a great easiness and propriety of application for
+such a purpose.  And if we suppose, that while God Almighty was declaring
+his promise to Noah, and the sign of it, there appeared at the same time
+in the clouds a fair rainbow, that marvellous and beautiful meteor which
+Noah had never seen before; it could not but make a most lively
+impression upon him, quickening his faith, and giving him comfort and
+assurance that God would be stedfast to his promise."
+
+A rainbow is sometimes formed by the rays of the moon falling upon drops
+of rain, in the same manner as the solar rays, and refracted and
+reflected by the drops; but the colours are faint in consequence of the
+feeble light of the moon compared with that of the sun.  A lunar rainbow
+has been thus described by an observer:--"The moon was truly 'walking in
+brightness,' brilliant as she could be, not a cloud was to be seen near
+her; and over against her, toward the north-west, or perhaps rather more
+to the north, was a rainbow, a vast arch, perfect in all its parts, not
+interrupted or broken as rainbows frequently are, but unremittedly
+visible from one horizon to the other.  In order to give some idea of its
+extent, it is necessary to say, that, as I stood toward the western
+extremity of the parish of Stoke Newington, it seemed to take its rise
+from the west of Hampstead, and to end perhaps in the river Lea, the
+eastern boundary of Tottenham.  Its colour was white, cloudy, or greyish,
+but a part of its western limb seemed to exhibit tints of a faint sickly
+green.  After some time the moon became darkened by clouds, and the
+rainbow of course vanished."
+
+                         [Picture: Lunar Rainbow]
+
+The brilliant colours of the solar rainbow are frequently produced by the
+clouds without any prismatic arrangement.  The light of the sun is
+decomposed by a process called absorption: for example, white light is
+composed of red, yellow, and blue rays, in certain proportions; now, if
+in passing through, or falling upon any substance whatever, the red rays
+are stifled or absorbed, while the yellow and blue are allowed to pass or
+to be reflected, it is obvious that such a substance cannot appear white,
+because one of the elements of white light, namely, the red, is wanting;
+it must therefore appear of such a colour as results from the combination
+of yellow and blue; the substance will therefore appear green.  So, also,
+when white light falls upon what we call a _red_ surface, the yellow and
+blue rays are stifled or absorbed, leaving the red only to be reflected.
+Now, when we consider the various ways in which this absorption may take
+place; one or two, or all of the coloured rays being absorbed in every
+possible proportion, it is easy to form some idea of the manner by which
+the innumerable tints of the sky are produced.
+
+It has been calculated, that, of the horizontal sunbeams which pass
+through two hundred miles of air, scarcely a two thousandth part reaches
+the earth.  A densely formed cloud must therefore detain a much larger
+share; and those dark and sombre forms, which sometimes make the sky so
+gloomy, can only result from the abundant absorption of the solar light.
+The brilliant whiteness which their edges occasionally exhibit, must
+result from the more copious transmission of light, so that the depths of
+shade in a cloud may be regarded as comparative measures of the varied
+thickness of its mass.
+
+Sometimes the clouds absorb equally all the solar rays, in which case the
+sun and moon appear through them perfectly white.  Instances are recorded
+in which the sun appeared of a pale blue.  It has also been observed to
+be orange at its upper part, while the lower was of a brilliant red.
+
+The position from which clouds are seen, has much to do with their
+colours; and it seems difficult sometimes to believe that the clouds,
+which in the evening are seen drenched with crimson and gold, are the
+same we beheld absolutely colourless in the middle of the day.
+
+In the immediate neighbourhood of the sun the most brilliant colours may
+be disclosed; and their vividness and intensity diminish, and at last
+disappear at some distance from it.  Parry noticed some white fleecy
+clouds, which, at the distance of fifteen or twenty degrees from the sun,
+reflected from their edges the most soft and tender tints of yellow,
+bluish green, and lake; and as the clouds advanced the colours increased
+gradually, until they reached a sort of limit two degrees below the solar
+orb.  As the current continued to transport them, the vividness of colour
+became weakened by almost insensible degrees until the whole assemblage
+of tints vanished.
+
+"Who can venture to imitate, by the pencil, the endless varieties of red
+and orange and yellow which the setting sun discloses, and the magical
+illusions which all the day diversify the vast and varied space the eye
+travels over in rising gradually from the horizon to the upper sky?
+Those who have paid any attention to colours, must be aware of the
+difficulty of describing the various tints and shades that appear, and
+which are known to amount to many thousands."
+
+The rapid changes of colour which the clouds undergo, seem to depend on
+something more than change of position either in the cloud or in the sun.
+Forster mentions an instance of some detached cirro-cumuli being of a
+fine golden yellow, but in a single minute becoming deep red.  On another
+occasion he saw the exact counterpart in a cirro-stratus, by its
+instantly changing from a beautiful red to a bright golden yellow.
+"What, indeed, can be more interesting, than when by the breaking out of
+the sun in gleams, a cloud which a moment before seemed only an
+unshapened mass devoid of all interest and beauty, is suddenly pierced by
+cataracts of light, and imbued with the most splendid colours, varying
+every instant in intensity?  Numerous examples occur of this beautiful
+play of colour, which cannot but remind us of the phenomena displayed by
+the pigeon's neck and the peacock's tail, by opal and pearl.
+
+"After the sun is set, the mild glow of his rays is still diffused over
+every part; and it has been remarked, that the clouds assume their
+brightest and most splendid colours a few minutes after it is below the
+horizon.  It is in the finest weather that the colouring of the sky
+presents the most perfect examples of harmony, in tempestuous weather it
+being almost always inharmonious.  At the time of a warm sun-setting, the
+whole hemisphere is influenced by the prevailing colour of the light.
+The snowy summits of the Alps appear about sunset of a most beautiful
+violet colour, approaching to light crimson or pink.  It is remarkable,
+also, as an example of that general harmony which prevails in the
+material world, that the most glowing and magnificent skies occur when
+terrestrial objects put on their deepest and most splendid hues.  It has
+also been observed, that it is not the change of vegetation only, which
+gives to the decaying charms of autumn their finest and most golden hues,
+but also the atmosphere and the peculiar lights and shadows which then
+prevail; and there can be no doubt, on the other hand, that our
+perception of beauty in the sky is very much influenced by the
+surrounding scenery.  In autumn all is matured; and the rich hues of the
+ripened fruits and the changing foliage are rendered still more lovely by
+the warm haze which a fine day at that season presents.  So, also, the
+earlier hues of spring have a transparency, and a thousand quivering
+lights, which in their turn harmonize with the light and flitting clouds
+and uncertain shadows which then prevail." {155}
+
+              [Picture: Decorative picture of lady by river]
+
+ [Picture: Foot-print of a bird, and impression of rain-drops sand-stone]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+REMARKABLE SHOWERS--SHOWERS OF SAND--OF MUD--SHOWERS OF SULPHUR, OR
+YELLOW RAIN--LUMINOUS RAIN--RED RAIN, OR SHOWERS OF BLOOD--SUPERSTITIONS
+CONNECTED THEREWITH--EXPLANATION OF THE CAUSE--SHOWERS OF FISH--SHOWERS
+OF RATS--SHOWERS OF FROGS--INSECT SHOWER--SHOWERS OF VEGETABLE
+SUBSTANCES--MANNA--WHEAT--SHOWERS OF STONES--METEORIC STONES, OR
+AEROLITES--METEORIC IRON--SUPPOSITIONS RESPECTING THEM--FOSSIL RAIN.
+
+Water, in the state of rain, hail, snow, or dew, is generally the only
+substance which falls from the atmosphere upon the earth.  There are,
+however, many well authenticated instances of various substances being
+showered down upon the land, to the great alarm of persons who were
+ignorant that the powerful action of the wind was, perhaps, the chief
+cause of the strange visitations to which we allude.
+
+We read of showers of sand, mud, sulphur, blood, fishes, frogs, insects,
+and stones; and it may be useful, as well as interesting, to quote a few
+examples of each description of shower.
+
+On the west coast of Africa, between Cape Bojador and Cape Verd, and
+thence outwards, the land, during the dry season, consists of little else
+but dust or sand, which, on account of its extreme fineness, is raised
+into the atmosphere by the slightest current of air; while a moderate
+wind will convey it to so considerable a distance as even to annoy ships
+crossing the Atlantic.  On the 14th and 15th January, 1839, the Prussian
+ship, _Princess Louisa_, being in N. lat. 24 degrees 20', and W. long. 26
+degrees 42', had her sails made quite yellow by the fine sand which
+covered them.  This effect was produced when the distance from land was
+as much as from 12 to 20 degrees.  About a fortnight after the time when
+this ship crossed these parts of the Atlantic, a similar effect was
+produced on board the English ship _Roxburgh_.  One of the passengers,
+the Rev. W. B. Clarke, says:--"The sky was overcast, and the weather
+thick and insufferably oppressive, though the thermometer was only 72
+degrees.  At 3 P.M. Feb. 4, the wind suddenly lulled into a calm; then
+rose from the SW. accompanied by rain, and the air appeared to be filled
+with dust, which affected the eyes of the passengers and crew.  The
+weather was clear and fine, and the powder which covered the sails was of
+a reddish-brown colour, resembling the ashes ejected from Vesuvius; and
+Mr. Clarke thinks that this dust may have proceeded from the volcanic
+island of Fogo, one of the Cape de Verds, about forty-five miles from the
+place where the ship then was.
+
+In countries which are subject to long-continued droughts the soil is
+frequently converted into dust, which, being carried away by the winds,
+leaves the land barren.  The climate of Buenos Ayres, in South America,
+has of late years been subject to such droughts, as to disappoint the
+hopes of the husbandman and the breeder of cattle.  In the early part of
+1832, the drought had reached to such a height as to convert the whole
+province into one continued bleak and dreary desert.  The clouds of dust
+raised by the winds were so dense as completely to obscure the sun at
+mid-day, and envelope the inhabitants in almost total darkness.  When the
+rains at length commenced, in March, the water, in its passage through
+the air, intermingled so completely with the dust suspended in it, as to
+descend in the form of showers of mud; and, on some occasions, gave to
+the whole exterior of the houses the appearance of having been plastered
+over with earth.  Many flocks of sheep were smothered on these occasions,
+in a similar manner as in the snow-storms which occur in the mountainous
+districts of Scotland.
+
+Showers of sulphur, or yellow rain, have fallen at different times in
+various parts of Europe; and sometimes, when falling by night, they have
+appeared luminous, to the great alarm of the observers.  Yellow rain has
+been accounted for in the following way:--The pollen, or impregnating
+seed-dust of the flowers of the fir, birch, juniper, and other trees, is
+of a yellow colour, and this pollen, by the action of the wind, is
+carried to a considerable distance, and descends with falling rain.  This
+yellow rain has also been found impregnated with sulphur; and during a
+shower of this kind which once fell in Germany, matches were made by
+being dipped in it.
+
+Many examples of luminous rain are recorded on good authority.  One of
+the latest instances is mentioned by Dr. Morel Deville, of Paris, who on
+the 1st of November, 1844, at half-past eight o'clock in the evening,
+during a heavy fall of rain, noticed, as he was crossing the court of the
+College Louis-le-Grand, that the drops, on coming in contact with the
+ground, emitted sparks and tufts (_aigrettes_) of light, accompanied by a
+rustling and crackling noise; a smell of phosphorus having been
+immediately after perceptible.  The phenomenon was seen three times.  At
+the same hour a remarkable brightness was seen in the northern sky.
+
+An officer of the Algerian army states, that during a violent storm on
+the 20th September, 1840, the drops of rain that fell on the beards and
+mustachios of the men were luminous.  When the hair was wiped the
+appearance ceased; but was renewed the moment any fresh drops fell on it.
+
+But of all these remarkable showers, the greatest alarm has been
+occasioned by _red rain_, or showers of blood as they have been
+ignorantly called.  In the year 1608, considerable alarm was excited in
+the city of Aix and its vicinity by the appearance of large red drops
+upon the walls of the cemetery of the greater church, which is near the
+walls of the city, upon the walls of the city itself, and also upon the
+walls of villas, hamlets, and towns, for some miles round the city.  The
+husbandmen are said to have been so alarmed, that they left their labour
+in the fields and fled for safety into the neighbouring houses; and a
+report was set on foot, that the appearance was produced by demons or
+witches shedding the blood of innocent babes.  M. Peiresc, thinking this
+story of a bloody shower to be scarcely reconcileable with the goodness
+and providence of God, accidentally discovered, as he thought, the true
+cause of the phenomenon.  He had found, some months before, a chrysalis
+of remarkable size and form, which he had enclosed in a box; he thought
+no more of it, until hearing a buzz within the box, he opened it, and
+perceived that the chrysalis had been changed into a beautiful butterfly,
+which immediately flew away, leaving at the bottom of the box a red drop
+of the size of a shilling.  As this happened about the time when the
+shower was supposed to have fallen, and when multitudes of those insects
+were observed fluttering through the air in every direction, he concluded
+that the drops in question were emitted by them when they alighted upon
+the walls.  He, therefore, examined the drops again, and remarked that
+they were not upon the upper surfaces of stones and buildings, as they
+would have been if a shower of blood had fallen from the sky, but rather
+in cavities and holes where insects might nestle.  He also noticed that
+they were to be seen upon the walls of those houses only which were near
+the fields; and not upon the more elevated parts of them, but only up to
+the same moderate height at which butterflies were accustomed to flutter.
+This was, no doubt, the correct explanation of the phenomenon in
+question; for it is a curious and well-ascertained fact, that when
+insects are evolved from the pupa state, they always discharge some
+substance, which, in many butterflies, is of a red colour, resembling
+blood, while in several moths it is orange or whitish.
+
+It appears, however, from the researches of M. Ehrenberg, a distinguished
+microscopic observer, that the appearances of blood which have at
+different times been observed in Arabia, Siberia, and other places, are
+not to be attributed to one, but to various causes.  From his account, it
+appears that rivers have flowed suddenly with red or bloody water,
+without any previous rain of that colour having fallen; that lakes or
+stagnant-waters were suddenly or gradually coloured without previous
+blood-rain; that dew, rain, snow, hail, and shot-stars, occasionally fall
+from the air red-coloured, as blood-dew, blood-rain, and clotted blood;
+and, lastly, that the atmosphere is occasionally loaded with red dust, by
+which the rain accidentally assumes the appearance of blood-rain, in
+consequence of which rivers and stagnant waters assume a red colour.
+
+The blood-red colour sometimes exhibited by pools, was first
+satisfactorily explained at the close of the last century.  Girod
+Chantran, observing the water of a pond to be of a brilliant red colour,
+examined it with the microscope, and found that the sanguine hue resulted
+from the presence of innumerable animalculae, not visible to the naked
+eye.  But, before this investigation, Linnaeus and other naturalists had
+shown that red infusoria were capable of giving that colour to water
+which, in early times, and still, we fear, in remote districts, was
+supposed to forebode great calamities.  In the year 1815 an instance of
+this superstitious dread occurred in the south of Prussia.  A number of
+red, violet, or grass-green spots were observed in a lake near Lubotin,
+about the end of harvest.  In winter the ice was coloured in the same
+manner at the surface, while beneath it was colourless.  The inhabitants,
+in great dismay, anticipated a variety of disasters from the appearance;
+but it fortunately happened that the celebrated chemist Klaproth, hearing
+of the circumstance, undertook an examination of the waters of the lake.
+He found them to contain an albuminous vegetable matter, with a
+particular colouring matter similar to indigo, produced, probably, by the
+decomposition of vegetables in harvest; while the change of colour from
+green to violet and red, he explained by the absorption of more or less
+oxygen.  A few years ago the blood-red waters of a Siberian lake were
+carefully examined by M. Ehrenberg, and found to contain multitudes of
+infusoria, by the presence of which this remarkable appearance was
+accounted for.  Thus it appears that both animals and vegetables are
+concerned in giving a peculiar tint to water.  It has also been
+ascertained that red snow is chiefly occasioned by the presence of red
+animalculae.
+
+Showers of fish and frogs are by no means uncommon, especially in India.
+One of these showers, which fell about twenty miles south of Calcutta, is
+thus noticed by an observer:--"About two o'clock, P.M., of the 20th
+inst., (Sept. 1839,) we had a very smart shower of rain, and with it
+descended a quantity of live fish, about three inches in length, and all
+of one kind only.  They fell in a straight line on the road from my house
+to the tank which is about forty or fifty yards distant.  Those which
+fell on the hard ground were, as a matter of course, killed from the
+fall, but those which fell where there was grass sustained no injury; and
+I picked up a large quantity of them, 'alive and kicking,' and let them
+go into my tank.  The most strange thing that ever struck me in connexion
+with this event, was, that the fish did not fall helter skelter,
+everywhere, or 'here and there;' but they fell in a straight line, not
+more than a cubit in breadth."  Another shower is said to have taken
+place at a village near Allahabad, in the month of May.  About noon, the
+wind being in the west, and a few distant clouds visible, a blast of high
+wind came on, accompanied with so much dust as to change the tint of the
+atmosphere to a reddish hue.  The blast appeared to extend in breadth
+four hundred yards, and was so violent that many large trees were blown
+down.  When the storm had passed over, the ground, south of the village,
+was found to be covered with fish, not less than three or four thousand
+in number.  They all belonged to a species well known in India, and were
+about a span in length.  They were all dead and dry.
+
+It would be easy to multiply these examples to almost any extent,
+although they are not so frequent in Great Britain.  It is related in
+Hasted's History of Kent, that about Easter, 1666, in the parish of
+Stanstead, which is a considerable distance from the sea, and a place
+where there are no fishponds, and rather a scarcity of water, a pasture
+field was scattered all over with small fish, supposed to have been
+rained down during a thunder-storm.  Several of these fish were sold
+publicly at Maidstone and Dartford.  In the year 1830, the inhabitants of
+the island of Ula, in Argyleshire, after a day of very hard rain, which
+occurred on the 9th March, were surprised to find numbers of small
+herrings strewed over the fields, perfectly fresh and some of them alive.
+Some years ago, during a strong gale, herrings and other fish were
+carried from the Frith of Forth so far as Loch-Leven.
+
+In some countries rats migrate in vast numbers from the high to the low
+countries; and it is recorded in the history of Norway, that a shower of
+these, transported by the wind, fell in an adjacent valley.
+
+Several notices have, from time to time, been brought before the French
+Academy, of showers of frogs having fallen in different parts of France.
+Professor Pontus, of Cahors, states, that in August, 1804, while distant
+three leagues from Toulouse, the sky being clear, suddenly a very thick
+cloud covered the horizon, and thunder and lightning came on.  The cloud
+burst over the road about sixty toises (383 feet) from the place where M.
+Pontus was.  Two gentlemen, returning from Toulouse, were surprised by
+being exposed not only to a storm, but to a shower of frogs.  Pontus
+states that he saw the young frogs on their cloaks.  When the diligence
+in which he was travelling, arrived at the place where the storm burst,
+the road, and the fields alongside of it, were observed full of frogs, in
+three or four layers placed one above the other.  The feet of the horses
+and the wheels of the carriage killed thousands.  The diligence travelled
+for a quarter of an hour, at least, along this living road, the horses
+being at a trot.
+
+In the "Journal de St. Petersburg," is given an account of the fall of a
+shower of insects during a snow-storm in Russia.  "On the 17th October,
+1827, there fell in the district of Rjev, in the government of Tver, a
+heavy shower of snow, in the space of about ten versts (nearly seven
+English miles), which contained the village of Pakroff and its environs.
+It was accompanied in its fall by a prodigious quantity of worms of a
+black colour, ringed, and in length about an inch and a quarter.  The
+head of these insects was flat and shining, furnished with antennae, and
+the hair in the form of whiskers; while the body, from the head to about
+one-third of their length, resembled a band of black velvet.  They had on
+each side three feet, by means of which they appeared to crawl very fast
+upon the snow, and assembled in groups about the plants and the holes in
+trees and buildings.  Several having been exposed to the air in a vessel
+filled with snow, lived there till the 26th October; although, in that
+interval, the thermometer had fallen to eight degrees below zero.  Some
+others which had been frozen continued alive equally long; for they were
+not found exactly encrusted with the ice, but they had formed round their
+bodies a space similar to the hollow of a tree.  When they were plunged
+into water they swam about as if they had received no injury; but those
+which were carried into a warm place perished in a few minutes."
+
+All these remarkable showers may be accounted for, when we consider the
+mighty power of the wind; especially that form of it which is popularly
+called the whirlwind.  It is now pretty well ascertained, that in all, or
+most of the great storms which agitate the atmosphere, the wind has a
+circular or rotatory movement; and the same is probably the case in many
+of the lesser storms, in which the air is whirled upwards in a spiral
+curve with great velocity, carrying up any small bodies which may come
+within the circuit.  When such a storm happens at sea, the water-spout is
+produced.  In the deserts of Arabia, pillars of sand are formed; and, in
+other places various light bodies are caught up; fishponds have been
+entirely emptied in an instant, and the moving column, whether of water,
+sand, or air, travels with the wind with great swiftness.  When, however,
+the storm has subsided, the various substances thus caught up and
+sustained in the air, are deposited at great distances from the place
+where they were first found, and thus produce these remarkable showers.
+In some cases, however, the direct force of the wind has actually blown
+small fish out of the water, and conveyed them several miles inland.
+
+Showers of nutritious substances have been recorded on good authority.
+We do not here refer to the manna which fell in such abundance about the
+Hebrew camp, for that was a miracle specially wrought by the Almighty for
+the preservation of his chosen people; but, it may be noticed here, that
+in Arabia, a substance, called "manna," is found in great abundance on
+the leaves of many trees and herbs, and may be gathered and removed by
+the wind to a distance.  A shower of this kind occurred in 1824.  In
+1828, a substance was exhibited at the French Academy, which fell in the
+plains of Persia.  It was eaten, and afforded nourishment to cattle, and
+many other animals; and, on examination, proved to be a vegetable,--the
+_Lichen esculentus_,--which had been conveyed thither by the winds.
+
+In the Minutes of the proceedings of the Royal Society, 26th June, 1661,
+we find the following curious narration:--
+
+    "Col. Tuke brought, in writing, the following _brief account of the
+    supposed rain of wheat_, which was registered:--
+
+    "On the 30th of May, 1661, Mr. Henry Puckering, son to Sir Henry
+    Puckering, of Warwick, brought some papers of seeds, resembling
+    wheat, to the king, with a letter written by Mr. William Halyburton,
+    dated the 27th May, from Warwick; out of which letter I have made
+    this extract:
+
+    "'Instead of news I send you some papers of wonders.  On Saturday
+    last, it was rumoured in this town, that it rained wheat at
+    Tuchbrooke, a village about two miles from Warwick.  Whereupon some
+    of the inhabitants of this town went thither; where they saw great
+    quantities on the way, in the fields, and on the leads of the church,
+    castle, and priory, and upon the hearths of the chimneys in the
+    chambers.  And Arthur Mason, coming out of Shropshire, reports, that
+    it hath rained the like in many places of that county.  God make us
+    thankful for this miraculous blessing, &.'"
+
+    "I brought some papers of these seeds, with this letter, to the
+    Society of Gresham College; who would not enter into any
+    consideration of it, till they were better informed of the matter of
+    fact.  Hereupon, I entreated Mr. Henry Puckering to write to the
+    bailiff of the town of Warwick, to the ministers and physicians, to
+    send us an account of the matter of fact, and their opinions of it.
+    In the bailiff's letter, dated the 3rd of June, I find this report
+    verified; affirming that himself, with the inhabitants of the town,
+    were in a great astonishment at this wonder.  But, before the next
+    day of our meeting, I sent for some ivy-berries, and brought them to
+    Gresham College with some of these seeds resembling wheat; and taking
+    off the outward pulp of the ivy-berries, we found in each of the
+    berries four seeds; which were generally concluded by the Society to
+    be the same with those that were supposed and believed by the common
+    people to have been wheat that had been rained; and, that they were
+    brought to those places, where they were found, by starlings; who, of
+    all the birds that we know, do assemble in the greatest numbers; and
+    do, at this time of the year, feed upon these berries; and digesting
+    the outward pulp, they render these seeds by casting, as hawks do
+    feathers and bones."
+
+The remarkable showers already noticed, have excited much interest and
+inquiry among learned men, and many superstitious fears among the
+ignorant; but, there is another description of shower which affords a
+singular instance of popular observation, being greatly in advance of
+scientific knowledge.  We allude to the showers of stones, called
+"aerolites," (from two Greek words, signifying the _atmosphere_, and a
+_stone_); they are also called _Meteorolites_, or _Meteoric stones_.
+
+Writers in all ages have mentioned instances of stony bodies having been
+seen to fall from the sky.  The Chinese and Japanese carefully note down
+the most striking and remarkable phenomena of nature, believing them to
+have some connexion with public affairs; and the chronicles of these
+people are said to contain many notices of the fall of stony bodies from
+the sky.  Until within the last fifty years, however, these accounts have
+been treated in Europe as idle superstitions; scientific men denying even
+the probability of such an occurrence.  The first scientific man who was
+bold enough to support the popular opinion, that stones actually do fall
+from the sky, was Chladni, a German philosopher, who published a pamphlet
+on the subject in 1794.  This did not excite much attention, until, two
+years afterwards, a stone weighing fifty-six pounds was exhibited in
+London, which was said to have fallen in Yorkshire in the December of the
+preceding year; but, although the fact was attested by several
+respectable persons, the possibility of such an occurrence was still
+doubted.  It was remarked, however, by Sir Joseph Banks, that this stone
+was very similar in appearance to one which had been sent to him from
+Italy, with an account of its having fallen from the clouds.  In the year
+1799, a number of stones were received by the Royal Society, from
+Benares, in the East Indies, which were also said to have fallen from the
+atmosphere, with a minute account of the circumstances attending the
+fall, which will be presently noticed; and, as these stones appeared to
+be precisely similar to the Yorkshire stone already noticed, attention
+was fairly drawn to the subject.  In 1802, Mr. Howard published an
+analysis of a variety of these stones collected from different places;
+and his researches led to the important conclusion, that they are all
+composed of the same substances, and in nearly the same proportions.  In
+1803, a notice was received at Paris, of a shower of stones at L'Aigle in
+Normandy; and the Institute of France deputed M. Biot, a well-known and
+excellent natural philosopher, to examine, on the spot, all the
+circumstances attending this remarkable event.  His account will be
+noticed presently; but it may here be stated, that the stones he
+collected, on being analysed, gave results similar to those obtained by
+Mr. Howard.
+
+The circumstances attending the fall of stones at Krakhut, a village
+about fourteen miles from the city of Benares, are briefly as follow:--On
+the 19th December, 1798, a very luminous meteor was observed in the
+heavens, about eight o'clock in the evening, in the form of a large ball
+of fire; it was accompanied by a loud noise, resembling that of thunder,
+which was immediately followed by the sound of the fall of heavy bodies.
+On examining the ground, it was observed to have been newly torn up in
+many places; and in these were found stones of a peculiar appearance,
+most of which had buried themselves to the depth of six inches.  At the
+time the meteor appeared, the sky was perfectly serene, not the smallest
+vestige of a cloud had been seen since the 11th of the month; nor were
+any observed for many days after.  It was seen in the western part of the
+hemisphere, and was visible only a short time.  The light from it was so
+great, as to cast a strong shadow from the bars of a window upon a dark
+carpet.  Mr. Davis, the judge and magistrate of the district, affirmed,
+that in brilliancy it equalled the brightest moonlight.  Both he and Mr.
+Erskine were induced to send persons in whom they could confide to the
+spot where this shower of stones is reported to have taken place, and
+thus obtained additional evidence of the phenomena, together with several
+of the stones which had penetrated about six inches into fields recently
+watered.  Mr. Maclane, a gentleman who resided near Krakhut, presented
+Mr. Howard with a portion of a stone which had been brought to him the
+morning after its fall by the person who was on duty at his house, and
+through the roof of whose hut it had passed, and buried itself several
+inches in the floor, which was of consolidated earth.  Before it was
+broken it must have weighed upwards of two pounds.
+
+M. Biot's summary of the evidence collected by him respecting the great
+shower of stones which fell at Aigle, in Normandy, is as follows:--
+
+    "On Tuesday, 26th April, 1803, about one o'clock, P.M., the weather
+    being serene, there was observed from Caen, Pont d'Audemer, and the
+    environs of Alencon, Falaise, and Verneuil, a fiery globe, of a very
+    brilliant splendour, and which moved in the atmosphere with great
+    rapidity.  Some moments after, there was heard at Aigle, and in the
+    environs of that town, in the extent of more than thirty leagues in
+    every direction, a violent explosion, which lasted five or six
+    minutes.  At first there were three or four reports like those of a
+    cannon, followed by a kind of discharge which resembled the firing of
+    musketry; after which, there was heard a dreadful rumbling, like the
+    beating of a drum.  The air was calm and the sky serene, except a few
+    clouds, such as are frequently observed.  This noise proceeded from a
+    small cloud which had a rectangular form; the largest side being in a
+    direction from east to west.  It appeared motionless all the time
+    that the phenomenon lasted; but the vapours of which it was composed,
+    were projected momentarily from different sides, by the effect of
+    successive explosions.  This cloud was about half a league to the
+    north-north-west of the town of Aigle.  It was at a great elevation
+    in the atmosphere; for, the inhabitants of two hamlets, a league
+    distant from each other, saw it at the same time above their heads.
+    In the whole canton over which this cloud was suspended, there was a
+    hissing noise, like that of a stone discharged from a sling; and a
+    great many mineral masses, exactly similar to those distinguished by
+    the name of 'meteor-stones,' were seen to fall.  The district in
+    which these masses were projected, forms an elliptical extent of
+    about two leagues and a half in length, and nearly one in breadth,
+    the greatest dimension being in a direction from south-east to
+    north-west; forming a declination of about 22 degrees.  This
+    direction, which the meteor must have followed, is exactly that of
+    the magnetic meridian, which is a remarkable result.  The greatest of
+    these stones fell at the south-eastern extremity of the large axis of
+    the ellipse, the middle-sized in the centre, and the smaller at the
+    other extremity.  Hence it appears, that the largest fell first, as
+    might naturally be supposed.  The largest of all those that fell,
+    weighs seventeen pounds and a half.  The smallest which I have seen,
+    weighs about two _gros_, (a thousandth part of the last.)  The number
+    of all those which fell, is certainly above two or three thousand."
+
+Meteoric stones have been known to commit great injury in their fall.  In
+July, 1790, a very bright fire-ball, luminous as the sun, of the size of
+an ordinary balloon, appeared near Bourdeaux, which, after filling the
+inhabitants with alarm, burst, and disappeared.  A few days after, some
+peasants brought stones into the town, which they said had fallen from
+the meteor; but, the philosophers to whom they offered them laughed at
+their statements.  One of these stones, fifteen inches in diameter, broke
+through the roof of a cottage, and killed a herdsman and a bullock.  In
+1810, a great stone fell at Shahabad, in India.  It burnt a village, and
+killed several people.
+
+The fall of meteoric stones is more frequent than would be supposed.
+Chaldni has compiled a Catalogue of all recorded instances from the
+earliest times.  Of these, twenty-seven are previous to the Christian
+era; thirty-five from the beginning of the first to the end of the
+fourteenth century; eighty-nine from the beginning of the fifteenth to
+the beginning of the present century; from which time, since the
+attention of scientific men has been directed to the subject, above sixty
+cases have been recorded.  These are, doubtless, but a small proportion
+of the whole amount of meteoric showers which have fallen, when the small
+extent of surface occupied by those capable of recording the event is
+compared with the wide expanse of the ocean, the vast uninhabited
+deserts, mountains, and forests, and the countries occupied by savage
+nations.
+
+Meteoric stones have generally a broken, irregular surface, coated with a
+thin black crust, like varnish.  When broken, they appear to have been
+made up of a number of small spherical bodies of a grey colour, imbedded
+in a gritty substance, and often interspersed with yellow spots.  A
+considerable proportion of iron is found in all of them, partly in a
+malleable state, partly in that of an oxide, and always in combination
+with a rather scarce metal called nickel; {181} the earths silica, and
+magnesia, and sulphur, form the other chief ingredients; but, the earths
+alumina and lime, the metals manganese, chrome, and cobalt, together with
+carbon, soda, and water, have also been found in small quantities, but
+not in the same specimens.  No substance with which chemists were
+previously unacquainted, has ever been found in them; but no combination,
+similar to that in meteoric stones, has ever been met with in geological
+formations, or among the products of any volcano.  They are sometimes
+very friable, sometimes very hard; and some that are friable when they
+first fall, become hard afterwards.  When taken up soon after their fall
+they are extremely hot.  They vary in weight from two drams to several
+hundred pounds.  Meteoric stones have fallen in all climates, in every
+part of the earth, at all seasons, in the night and in the day.
+
+The meteoric stones already noticed, are not the only metallic bodies
+which are supposed to fall from the sky.  In many parts of the earth
+masses of malleable iron, often of vast size, have been found.  An
+immense mass seen by Pallas, in Siberia, was discovered at a great height
+on a mountain of slate, near the river Jenesei.  The Tartars held it in
+great veneration, as having fallen from heaven.  It was removed in the
+year 1749, to the town of Krasnojarsk, by the inspector of iron mines.
+The mass, which weighed about 1,400 pounds, was irregular in form, and
+cellular, like a sponge.  The iron was tough and malleable, and was found
+to contain nickel, silica, magnesia, sulphur, and chrome.  Another
+enormous mass of meteoric iron was found in South America, about the year
+1788.  It lay in a vast plain, half sunk in the ground, and was supposed,
+from its size and the known weight of iron, to contain upwards of
+thirteen tons.  Specimens of this mass are now in the British Museum, and
+have been found to contain 90 per cent. of iron and 10 of nickel.  Many
+other masses of iron might be mentioned, which, from the places in which
+they are found, and from their composition, leave no doubt as to their
+being of meteoric origin.  The only instance, on record, of iron having
+been actually seen to fall from the atmosphere, is that which took place
+at Agram in Croatia, on the 26th May, 1751.  About six o'clock in the
+evening, the sky being quite clear, a ball of fire was seen, which shot
+along, with a hollow noise, from west to east, and, after a loud
+explosion accompanied by a great smoke, two masses of iron fell from it
+in the form of chains welded together.
+
+It is, perhaps, impossible, in the present state of our knowledge, to
+account for the origin of these remarkable bodies.  Some have supposed
+them to have been shot out from volcanoes belonging to our earth; but
+this theory is opposed by the fact that no substance, resembling
+aerolites, has ever been found in or near any volcano; and they fall from
+a height to which no volcano can be supposed to have projected them, and
+still less to have given them the horizontal direction in which they
+usually move.  Another supposition is, that these masses are formed in
+the atmosphere; but it is almost ridiculous to imagine a body, weighing
+many tons, to be produced by any chemical or electrical forces in the
+upper regions of the air.  A third explanation is, that they are bodies
+thrown out by the volcanoes, which are known to exist in the moon, with
+such force as to bring them within the sphere of the earth's attraction.
+This notion was supported by the celebrated astronomer and mathematician
+La Place.  He calculated that a body projected from the moon with the
+velocity of 7771 feet in the first second, would reach our earth in about
+two days and a half.  But other astronomers are of opinion, that the
+known velocity of some meteors is too great to admit of the possibility
+of their having come from the moon.  The theory which agrees best with
+known facts and the laws of nature, is that proposed by Chladni, namely,
+that the meteors are bodies moving in space, either masses of matter as
+originally created, or fragments separated from a larger mass of a
+similar nature.  This view has also been supported by Sir Humphrey Davy,
+who says, "The luminous appearances of shooting-stars and meteors cannot
+be owing to any inflammation of elastic fluids, but must depend upon the
+ignition of solid bodies.  Dr. Halley calculated the height of a meteor
+at ninety miles; and the great American meteor, which threw down showers
+of stones, was estimated at seventeen miles high.  The velocity of motion
+of these bodies must, in all cases, be immensely great, and the heat
+produced by the compression of the most rarefied air from the velocity of
+motion, must be, probably, sufficient to ignite the mass; and all the
+phenomena may be explained, if _falling stars_ be supposed to be small
+bodies moving round the earth in very eccentric orbits, which become
+ignited only when they pass with immense velocity through the upper
+region of the atmosphere; and if the meteoric bodies which throw down
+stones with explosions, be supposed to be similar bodies which contain
+either combustible or elastic matter."
+
+This chapter ought not to be concluded without a short notice of that
+remarkable rain known to geologists as "fossil rain."  In the new
+red-sandstone of the Storeton quarries, impressions of the foot-prints of
+ancient animals have been discovered; and in examining some of the slabs
+of stone extracted at the depth of above thirty feet, Mr. Cunningham
+observed "that their under surface was thickly covered with minute
+hemispherical projections, or casts in relief of circular pits, in the
+immediately subjacent layers of clay.  The origin of these marks, he is
+of opinion, must be ascribed to showers of rain which fell upon an
+argillaceous beach exposed by the retiring tide, and their preservation
+to the filling up of the indentations by sand.  On the same slabs are
+impressions of the feet of small reptiles, which appear to have passed
+over the clay previously to the shower, since the foot-marks are also
+indented with circular pits, but to a less degree; and the difference Mr.
+Cunningham explains by the pressure of the animal having rendered these
+portions less easily acted upon."  The preservation of these marks has
+been explained by supposing dry sand, drifted by the wind, to have swept
+over and filled up the footprints, rain-pits, and hollows of every kind,
+which the soft argillaceous surface had received.
+
+The frontispiece to the present chapter (p. 156), represents a slab of
+sandstone containing impressions of the foot of a bird and of rain drops.
+This slab is from a sandstone basin near Turner's Falls, a fine cataract
+of the Connecticut river in the State of Massachusetts, and is described
+by Dr. Deane in a recent number of the American Journal of Science.  "It
+is rare," says that gentleman, to "find a stratum containing these
+footprints exactly as they were made by the animal, without having
+suffered change.  They are usually more or less disturbed or obliterated
+by the too soft nature of the mud, the coarseness of the materials, and
+by many other circumstances which we may easily see would deface them, so
+that although the general form of the foot may be apparent, the minute
+traces of its appendages are almost invariably lost.  In general, except
+in thick-toed species, we cannot discover the distinct evidences of the
+structure of the toes, each toe appearing to be formed of a single joint,
+and seldom terminated by a claw.  But, a few specimens hitherto
+discovered at this locality completely developed the true characters of
+the foot, its ranks of joints, its claws and integuments.  So far as I
+have seen, the faultless impressions are upon shales of the finest
+texture with a smooth glossy surface, such as would retain the beautiful
+impressions of rain drops.  This kind of surface containing footmarks is
+exceedingly rare: I have seen but few detached examples; recently it has
+been my good fortune to recover a stratum, containing in all more than
+one hundred most beautiful impressions of the feet of four or five
+varieties of birds, the entire surface being also pitted by a shower of
+fossil rain-drops.  The slabs are perfectly smooth on the inferior
+surface, and are about two inches in thickness.
+
+"The impression of a medallion is not more sharp and clear than are most
+of these imprints, and it may be proper to observe, that this remarkable
+preservation may be ascribed to the circumstance, that the entire surface
+of the stratum was incrusted with a layer of micaceous sandstone,
+adhering so firmly that it would not cleave off, thereby requiring the
+laborious and skilful application of the chisel.  The appearance of this
+shining layer which is of a gray colour, while the fossil slab is a dark
+red, seems to carry the probability that it was washed or blown over the
+latter while in a state of loose sand, thus filling up the foot-prints
+and rain-drops, and preserving them unchanged until the present
+day--unchanged in the smallest particular, so far as relates merely to
+configuration, nothing being obliterated; the precise form of the nails,
+or claws, and joints, and in the deep impressions of the heel bone, being
+exquisitely preserved."
+
+The small slab figured at p. 156 is described as being an incomparable
+specimen.  "For purity of impression it is unsurpassed, and the living
+reality of the rain-drops, the beautiful colour of the stone, its sound
+texture and lightness, renders it a fit member for any collection of
+organic remains."
+
+                      [Picture: Mandan rain-makers]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+COMMON SAYINGS RESPECTING THE WEATHER--SAINT SWITHIN'S-DAY--SIGNS OF RAIN
+OR OF FAIR WEATHER DERIVED FROM THE APPEARANCE OF THE SUN--FROM THAT OF
+THE MOON--FROM THE STARS--FROM THE SKY--FROM THE DISTINCTNESS OF
+SOUNDS--FROM THE RISING OF SMOKE--FROM THE PECULIAR ACTIONS OF PLANTS AND
+ANIMALS--PROGNOSTICS NOTICED BY SIR HUMPHREY DAVY--SIGNS OF RAIN
+COLLECTED BY DR. JENNER--NORTH AMERICAN RAIN-MAKERS--INCIDENT RELATED BY
+CATLIN--RAIN-DOCTORS OF SOUTHERN AFRICA--RAIN-DOCTORS OF
+CEYLON--SUPERSTITIONS GIVING WAY TO THE TEACHING OF
+MISSIONARIES--CONCLUSION.
+
+There are many proverbial sayings among country people concerning the
+state of the weather, which, having been derived from long observation,
+have become axioms, and were designated by Bacon "the philosophy of the
+people."  These prognostics are being set aside by the more certain
+lights of science, but there is no doubt that many natural objects may
+indicate symptoms of change in the atmosphere before any actually takes
+place in it to such an extent as to affect our senses.  Some of these
+prognostics are of a general character applying to all seasons, and there
+are others which apply only to a particular season; but they may all be
+derived from appearances of the heavenly bodies and of the sky, the state
+of meteorological instruments, and the notions and habits of certain
+plants and animals.  The author of the "Journal of a Naturalist" has some
+good observations on this subject.  He says:--
+
+    "Old simplicities, tokens of winds and weather, and the plain
+    observances of human life, are everywhere waning fast to decay.  Some
+    of them may have been fond conceits; but they accorded with the
+    ordinary manners of the common people, and marked times, seasons, and
+    things, with sufficient truth for those who had faith in them.
+    Little as we retain of these obsolete fancies, we have not quite
+    abandoned them all; and there are yet found among our peasants a few,
+    who mark the blooming of the large water-lily (_lilium candidum_),
+    and think that the number of its blossoms on a stem will indicate the
+    price of wheat by the bushel for the ensuing year, each blossom
+    equivalent to a shilling.  We expect a sunny day too, when the
+    pimpernel (_anagallis arvensis_) fully expands its blossoms; a
+    dubious, or a moist one, when they are closed.  In this belief,
+    however, we have the sanction of some antiquity to support us.  Sir
+    F. Bacon records it; Gerarde notes it as a common opinion entertained
+    by country people above two centuries ago; and I must not withhold my
+    own faith in its veracity, but say that I believe this pretty little
+    flower to afford more certain indication of dryness or moisture in
+    the air than any of our hygrometers do.  But if these be fallible
+    criterions, we will notice another that seldom deceives us.  The
+    approach of a sleety snow-storm, following a deceitful gleam in
+    spring, is always announced to us by the loud untuneful voice of the
+    missel-thrush (_turdus viscivorus_) as it takes its stand on some
+    tall tree, like an enchanter calling up the gale.  It seems to have
+    no song, no voice, but this harsh predictive note; and it in great
+    measure ceases with the storms of spring.  We hear it occasionally in
+    autumn, but its voice is not then prognostic of any change of
+    weather.  The missel-thrush is a wild and wary bird, keeping
+    generally in open fields and commons, heaths and unfrequented places,
+    feeding upon worms and insects.  In severe weather it approaches our
+    plantations and shrubberies, to feed on the berry of the mistletoe,
+    the ivy, or the scarlet fruit of the holly or the yew; and, should
+    the redwing or the fieldfare presume to partake of these with it, we
+    are sure to hear its voice in clattering and contention with the
+    intruders, until it drives them from the place, though it watches and
+    attends, notwithstanding, to its own safety."
+
+But before we notice more in detail the natural prognostics of the
+weather, it is desirable to speak of a superstition which is widely
+spread among all classes, in the town as well as in the country.  The
+superstition referred to, is that connected with St. Swithin's-day, and
+is well expressed in a Scotch proverb:--
+
+   "Saint Swithin's-day, gif ye do rain,
+   For forty days it will remain;
+   Saint Swithin's-day, an ye be fair,
+   For forty days 'twill rain nae mair."
+
+This superstition originated with Swithin, or Swithum, bishop of
+Winchester, who died in the year 868.  He desired that he might be buried
+in the open churchyard, "where the drops of rain might wet his grave;"
+"thinking," says Bishop Hall, "that no vault was so good to cover his
+grave as that of heaven."  But when Swithin was canonized the monks
+resolved to remove his body into the choir of the church.  According to
+tradition, this was to have been done on the 15th of July; but it rained
+so violently for forty days that the design was abandoned.  Mr. Howard
+remarks, that the tradition is so far valuable, as it proves that the
+summers in the southern part of our island were subject, a thousand years
+ago, to occasional heavy rains, in the same way as at present.  This
+accurate observer has endeavoured to ascertain how far the popular notion
+is borne out by the fact.  In 1807 and 1808, it rained on St.
+Swithin's-day, and a dry season followed.  In 1818 and 1819, it was dry
+on the 15th, and a very dry season followed.  The other summers,
+occurring between 1807 and 1819, seem to show, "that in a majority of our
+summers, a showery period which, with some latitude as to time and local
+circumstances, may be admitted to constitute daily rain for forty days,
+does come on about the time indicated by the tradition of St. Swithin."
+
+But in these calculations, it is necessary to bear in mind that the
+change of style has very much interfered with St. Swithin.  With the day
+allowed in the closing year of the last century, St. Swithin's day is how
+thirteen days earlier in the calendar than it would have been by the old
+style.  Thus the true St. Swithin's-day, according to the tradition, is
+about the 28th of July, and not the 15th, as set down in the present
+calendar.  There must, therefore, be a considerable difference as to the
+rains and this day.
+
+We now proceed to collect a number of prognostics connected with the
+appearances of the heavenly bodies and of the sky; they are the result of
+long experience, but at the same time it is necessary to caution our
+readers against attaching much importance to them.
+
+When the sun rises red, wind and rain may be expected during the day; but
+when he rises unclouded, attended by a scorching heat, cloudiness and
+perhaps rain will ensue before mid-day.  When he rises clouded, with a
+few grey clouds, they will soon dissipate, and a fine day will follow.
+When his light is dim, vapour exists in the upper regions of the air, and
+may be expected to descend shortly after in the form of dense clouds.
+When his light, after rain, is of a transparent watery hue, rain will
+soon fall again.  When his direct rays have a scorching and weakening
+effect on the body throughout the greater part of the day, the next day
+will be cloudy, and perhaps rainy.  When the sun is more or less obscured
+by a thicker or thinner cirro-stratus cloud, and when he is said to be
+_wading_ in the cloud, rain may come--if the cloud indicates rain it will
+come.  A halo surrounding the disc of the sun is almost always sure to
+precede rain.  A red sunset without clouds indicates a doubt of fair
+weather; but a fine day may be expected after a red sunset in clouds.  A
+watery sunset, diverging rays of light, either direct from the sun or
+from behind a cloud, is indicative of rain.  After a dull black sunset
+rain may be expected.
+
+It is a common saying among country people,--
+
+   "An evening red, or a morning grey,
+   Doth betoken a bonnie day;
+   In an evening grey and a morning red,
+   Put on your hat, or yell weet your head."
+
+There are not many prognostics connected with the appearances of the
+moon.  The changes of the moon produce greater effects than at any other
+period.  With a clear silvery aspect fair weather may be expected.  A
+pale moon always indicates rain, and a red one wind.  Seeing the "old
+moon in the new one's arms," is a sign of stormy weather.  Seeing the new
+moon very young, "like the paring of a nail," also indicates wet; but
+when the horns of the new moon are blunt, they indicate rain, and fair
+weather when sharp.  It is truly said:
+
+   "In the wane of the moon,
+   A cloudy morning bodes a fair afternoon."
+
+And also
+
+   'New moon's mist
+   Never dies of thirst.'
+
+Halos and coronae are oftener seen about the moon than the sun, and they
+indicate rain.
+
+The stars appearing dim indicate rain.  Very few stars seen at one time,
+when there is no frost, indicate a similar result.
+
+When the sky is of deeply-coloured blue, it indicates rain.  If distant
+objects appear very distinct and near through the air, it indicates rain.
+When the air feels oppressive to walk in, rain will follow; when it feels
+light and pleasant, fair weather will continue.
+
+When distant sounds are distinctly heard through the air in a calm day,
+such as the tolling of bells, barking of dogs, talking of people,
+waterfalls, or rapids over mill-dams, the air is loaded with vapour, and
+rain may be expected.  The sea is often heard to roar, and loudest at
+night, as also the noise of a city, when a cloud is seen suspended a very
+short way above head.
+
+If smoke rise perpendicularly upwards from chimneys in calm weather, fair
+weather may be expected to continue; but if it fall toward and roll along
+the ground, not being easily dispersed, rain will ensue.
+
+Many of the above prognostics, as well as some of those relating to
+animals, are thus noticed by Sir Humphrey Davy, in his "Salmonia, or Days
+of Fly-fishing."  The conversation is between Halieus, a fly-fisher;
+Poietes, a poet; Physicus, a man of science; and Ornither, a sportsman.
+
+    "_Poiet_.  I hope we shall have another good day to-morrow, for the
+    clouds are red in the west.
+
+    _Phys_.  I have no doubt of it; for the red has a tint of purple.
+
+    _Hal_.  Do you know why this tint portends fine weather?
+
+    _Phys_.  The air, when dry, I believe, refracts more red or heating
+    rays; and as dry air is not perfectly transparent, they are again
+    reflected in the horizon.  I have generally observed a coppery or
+    yellow sun-set to foretell rain; but, as an indication of wet weather
+    approaching, nothing is more certain than a halo round the moon,
+    which is produced by the precipitated water; and the larger the
+    circle, the nearer the clouds, and consequently the more ready to
+    fall.
+
+    _Hal_.  I have often observed that the old proverb is correct--
+
+    'A rainbow in the morning is the shepherd's warning;
+    A rainbow at night is the shepherd's delight'
+
+    Can you explain this omen?
+
+    _Phys_.  A rainbow can only occur when the clouds containing or
+    depositing the rain are opposite the sun,--and in the evening the
+    rainbow is in the east, and in the morning in the west.  As,
+    therefore, our heavy rains in this climate are usually brought by the
+    westerly wind, a rainbow in the west indicates that the bad weather
+    is on the road, by the wind, to us; whereas, the rainbow in the east
+    proves that the rain in these clouds is passing from us.
+
+    _Poiet_.  I have often observed that when the swallows fly high, fine
+    weather is to be expected or continued; but when they fly low, and
+    close to the ground, rain is almost surely approaching.  Can you
+    account for this?
+
+    _Hal_.  Swallows follow the flies and gnats, and flies and gnats
+    usually delight in warm strata of air; and as warm air is lighter,
+    and usually moister than cold air, when the warm strata of air are
+    high, there is less chance of moisture being thrown down from them by
+    the mixture with cold air; but when the warm and moist air is close
+    to the surface, it is almost certain that, as the cold air flows down
+    into it, a deposition of water will take place.
+
+    _Poiet_.  I have often seen sea-gulls assemble on the land, and have
+    almost always observed that very stormy and rainy weather was
+    approaching.  I conclude that these animals, sensible of a current of
+    air approaching from the ocean, retire to the land to shelter
+    themselves from the storm.
+
+    _Orn_.  No such thing.  The storm is their element, and the little
+    petrel enjoys the heaviest gale; because, living on the smaller
+    sea-insects, he is sure to find his food in the spray of a heavy
+    wave; and you may see him flitting above the edge of the highest
+    surge.  I believe that the reason of this migration of sea-gulls, and
+    other sea-birds, to the land, is their security of finding food; and
+    they may be observed, at this time, feeding greedily on the
+    earth-worms and larvae driven out of the ground by severe floods; and
+    the fish on which they prey in fine weather in the sea, leave the
+    surface, and go deeper in storms.  The search after food, as we have
+    agreed on a former occasion, is the principal cause why animals
+    change their places.  The different tribes of the wading birds always
+    migrate when rain is about to take place; and I remember once, in
+    Italy, having been long waiting, in the end of March, for the arrival
+    of the double snipe in the Campagna of Rome, a great flight appeared
+    on the 3rd of April, and the day after heavy rain set in, which
+    greatly interfered with my sport.  The vulture, upon the same
+    principle, follows armies; and I have no doubt that the augury of the
+    ancients was a good deal founded upon the observation of the
+    instincts of birds.  There are many superstitions of the vulgar owing
+    to the same source.  For anglers, in spring, it is always unlucky to
+    see single magpies,--but _two_ may always be regarded as a favourable
+    omen; and the reason is, that in cold and stormy weather one magpie
+    alone leaves the nest in search of food, the other remaining sitting
+    upon the eggs or the young ones; but when two go out together, it is
+    only when the weather is warm and mild, and favourable for fishing.
+
+    _Poiet_.  The singular connexions of causes and effects to which you
+    have just referred, makes superstition less to be wondered at,
+    particularly amongst the vulgar; and when two facts, naturally
+    unconnected, have been accidentally coincident, it is not singular
+    that this coincidence should have been observed and registered, and
+    that omens of the most absurd kind should be trusted in.  In the west
+    of England, half a century ago, a particular hollow noise on the
+    sea-coast was referred to a spirit or goblin, called Bucca, and was
+    supposed to foretell a shipwreck.  The philosopher knows that sound
+    travels much faster than currents in the air; and the sound always
+    foretold the approach of a very heavy storm, which seldom takes place
+    on that wild and rocky coast without a shipwreck on some part of its
+    extensive shores, surrounded by the Atlantic."
+
+Dr. Jenner has collected in the following amusing lines a large number of
+the natural prognostics of rain.  They are said to have been addressed to
+a lady, who asked the Doctor if he thought it would rain to-morrow.
+
+   "The hollow winds begin to blow,
+   The clouds look black, the glass is low;
+   The soot falls down, the spaniels sleep,
+   And spiders from their cobwebs peep:
+   Last night the sun went pale to bed,
+   The moon in halos hid her head:
+   The boding shepherd heaves a sigh,
+   For, see! a rainbow spans the sky:
+   The walls are damp, the ditches smell,
+   Closed is the pink-eyed pimpernel;
+   Hark! how the chairs and tables crack;
+   Old Betty's joints are on the rack;
+   Loud quack the ducks, the peacocks cry,
+   The distant hills are seeming nigh.
+   How restless are the snorting swine,--
+   The busy flies disturb the kine.
+   Low o'er the grass the swallow wings;
+   The cricket, too, how loud it sings:
+   Puss on the hearth with velvet paws,
+   Sits smoothing o'er her whisker'd jaws.
+   Through the clear stream the fishes rise,
+   And nimbly catch the incautious flies:
+   The sheep were seen at early light
+   Cropping the meads with eager bite.
+   Though June, the air is cold and chill;
+   The mellow blackbird's voice is still.
+   The glow-worms, numerous and bright,
+   Illum'd the dewy dell last night.
+   At dusk the squalid toad was seen,
+   Hopping, and crawling o'er the green.
+   The frog has lost his yellow vest,
+   And in a dingy suit is dressed.
+   The leech, disturb'd, is newly risen,
+   Quite to the summit of his prison.
+   The whirling winds the dust obeys,
+   And in the rapid eddy plays;
+   My dog, so alter'd in his taste,
+   Quits mutton-bones on grass to feast;
+   And see yon rooks, how odd their flight!
+   They imitate the gliding kite,
+   Or seem precipitate to fall,
+   As if they felt the piercing ball:--
+   'Twill surely rain,--I see with sorrow,
+   Our jaunt must be put off to-morrow."
+
+Uncivilized nations often entertain the absurd notion that certain
+individuals can command the rain whenever they please.  Much honour is
+shown to persons supposed to possess this power, for they are considered
+as having some mysterious intercourse with heaven.  Catlin gives a
+striking instance of this superstition as it exists among the Mandans of
+North America.  These people raise a great deal of corn; but their
+harvests are sometimes destroyed by long-continued drought.  When
+threatened with this calamity, the women (who have the care of the
+patches of corn) implore their lords to intercede for rain; and
+accordingly the chiefs and doctors assemble to deliberate on the case.
+When they have decided that it is necessary to produce rain, they wisely
+delay the matter for as many days as possible; and it is not until
+further urged by the complaints and entreaties of the women, that they
+begin to take the usual steps for accomplishing their purpose.  At length
+they assemble in the council-house with all their apparatus about
+them--with abundance of wild sage and aromatic herbs, to burn before the
+"Great Spirit."  On these occasions the lodge is closed to all except the
+doctors and some ten or fifteen young men, the latter being the persons
+to whom the honour of making it rain, or the disgrace of having failed in
+the attempt, is to belong.
+
+After having witnessed the conjurations of the doctors inside the lodge,
+these young men are called up by lot, one at a time, to spend a day on
+the top of the lodge, and to see how far their efforts will avail in
+producing rain; at the same time the smoke of the burning herbs ascends
+through a hole in the roof.  On one of these occasions, when all the
+charms were in operation, and when three young men had spent each his day
+on the lodge in ineffectual efforts to bring rain, and the fourth was
+engaged alternately addressing the crowd of villagers and the spirits of
+the air, but in vain, it so happened that the steam-boat "Yellow Stone,"
+made her first trip up the Missouri river, and about noon approached the
+village of the Mandans.  Catlin was a passenger on this boat; and helped
+to fire a salute of twenty guns of twelve pounds calibre, when they first
+came in sight of the village, which was at some three or four miles
+distance.  These guns introduced a new sound into the country, which the
+Mandans naturally enough supposed to be thunder.  "The young man upon the
+lodge, who turned it to good account, was gathering fame in rounds of
+applause, which were repeated and echoed through the whole village; all
+eyes were centred upon him--chiefs envied him--mothers' hearts were
+beating high, whilst they were decorating and leading up their fair
+daughters to offer him in marriage on his signal success.  The
+medicine-men had left the lodge, and came out to bestow upon him the
+envied title of 'medicine-man,' or 'doctor,' which he had so deservedly
+won--wreaths were prepared to decorate his brows, and eagle's plumes and
+calumets were in readiness for him--his enemies wore on their faces a
+silent gloom and hatred; and his old sweethearts who had cast him off,
+gazed intensely upon him, as they glowed with the burning fever of
+repentance.  During all this excitement, Wak-a-dah-ha-hee (or the white
+buffalo's hair) kept his position, assuming the most commanding and
+threatening attitudes; brandishing his shield in the direction of the
+thunder, although there was not a cloud to be seen, until he (poor
+fellow) being elevated above the rest of the village, espied, to his
+inexpressible amazement, the steamboat ploughing its way up the windings
+of the river below, puffing her steam from her pipes, and sending forth
+the thunder from a twelve-pounder on her deck.  'The white Buffalo's
+hair' stood motionless, and turned pale; he looked awhile, and turned to
+the chief and to the multitude, and addressed them with a trembling
+lip--'My friends, we will get no rain!--there are, you see, no clouds;
+but my medicine is great--I have brought a _thunder-boat_! look and see
+it! the thunder you hear is out of her mouth, and the lightning which you
+see is on the waters!'
+
+"At this intelligence, the whole village flew to the tops of their
+wigwams, or to the bank of the river, from whence the steamer was in full
+view, and ploughing along to their utter dismay and confusion.  In this
+promiscuous throng, chiefs, doctors, women, children, and dogs, were
+mingled, Wak-a-dah-ha-hee having descended from his high place to mingle
+with the frightened throng.  Dismayed at the approach of so strange and
+unaccountable an object, the Mandans stood their ground but a few
+moments; when, by an order of the chiefs, all hands were ensconced within
+the piquets of their village, and all the warriors armed for desperate
+self-defence.  A few moments brought the boat in front of the village,
+and all was still and quiet as death; not a Mandan was to be seen upon
+the banks.  The steamer was moored, and three or four of the chiefs soon
+after walked boldly down the bank, and on to her deck, with a spear in
+one hand, and a calumet, or pipe of peace in the other.  The moment they
+stepped on board, they met (to their great surprise and joy) their old
+friend Major Sanford, their agent, which circumstance put an instant end
+to all their fears."
+
+It was long, however, before the rain-maker could be persuaded to come
+forward, or to listen to the assurance that his medicine had nothing
+whatever to do with the arrival of the ship.  Unwilling to lose the fame
+of having produced such a phenomenon, he continued to assert that he knew
+of its coming, and by his magic had caused it to approach.  But he was
+little regarded in the universal bustle and gossip which was going on
+respecting the mysteries of the "thunder-boat."
+
+Meanwhile the day passed on, and towards evening a cloud began to rise
+above the horizon.  Wak-a-dah-ha-hee no sooner observed this, than, with
+shield on his arm and bow in hand, he was again upon the lodge.
+"Stiffened and braced to the last sinew, he stood with his face and his
+shield presented to the cloud, and his bow drawn.  He drew the eyes of
+the whole village upon him, as he vaunted forth his superhuman powers;
+and at the same time commanded the cloud to come nearer, that he might
+draw down its contents upon their heads and the corn-fields of the
+Mandans.  In this wise he stood, waving his shield over his head,
+stamping his foot, and frowning as he drew his bow and threatened the
+heavens, commanding it to rain--his bow was bent, and the arrow drawn to
+its head, was sent to the cloud, {210} and he exclaimed, 'My friends, it
+is done!  Wak-a-dah-ha-hee's arrow has entered that black cloud, and the
+Mandans will be wet with the water of the skies!'  His predictions were
+true--in a few moments the cloud was over the village, and the rain fell
+in torrents.  He stood for some time wielding his weapons, and boasting
+of the efficacy of his _medicine_ to those who had been about him, but
+were now driven to the shelter of their wigwams; and descended from his
+high place (in which he had been perfectly drenched) prepared to receive
+the honours and homage that were due to one so potent in his mysteries;
+and to receive the style and title of _medicine-man_."  Catlin further
+informs us, that when the Mandans undertake to make it rain, they always
+succeed, for their ceremonies never stop until rain begins to fall: and
+also, that he who has once made it rain never attempts it again; his
+medicine is undoubted--and on future occasions of the kind he stands
+aloof, giving an opportunity to other young men who are ambitious to
+signalize themselves in the same way.
+
+A superstition similar to that of the Mandans prevails also among the
+Caffers of Southern Africa, and among the natives of Ceylon.  The Caffer
+chiefs, attended by their warriors, proceed with much ceremony, and laden
+with presents, to the dwelling of the rain-doctor, where a grand feast is
+held while certain charms are in process.  The impostor at length
+dismisses his guests with a variety of instructions, on the due
+observance of which the success of their application is to depend.  These
+instructions are generally of the most trifling kind: they are to travel
+home in perfect silence; or they are not to look back; or they are to
+compel every one they meet to turn back and go home with them.  Should
+rain happen to fall, the credit is given to the rain-doctor; but should
+the drought continue, the fault is laid upon the failure of the
+applicants to fulfil these instructions with sufficient exactness.
+
+Major Forbes gives an account of an old rain-doctor in Ceylon, who had
+plied a lucrative trade for many years, and at length wished to retire
+from business.  But the people were highly incensed at the idea of losing
+his services, especially as a most distressing drought was at that time
+the scourge of the land.  So persuaded were they of his powers, that they
+all agreed, that when required to do so by a whole village, he should be
+compelled to furnish rain in sufficient quantities; and that if he was
+insensible to rewards, he should be tormented with thorns or beaten into
+compliance.  In vain did the poor old impostor at length declare the
+truth, and assure the people that he had no power whatever to make it
+rain.  They treated his words with disdain, and dragged their victim from
+village to village, inflicting stripes at every halt.  Even the chief of
+the district had determined on having rain by force, if fair means should
+fail, and ordered the rain-doctor to be taken to the village where rain
+was most required.  On his way thither he was so fortunate as to meet
+with Major Forbes, who took him under his protection, and probably saved
+his life, though not without some difficulty, for it so happened that a
+few slight showers fell near his own village, while all the rest of the
+neighbourhood was suffering the extremity of drought.
+
+Melancholy indeed is the condition of these poor people; in utter
+ignorance of the source of all the providential mercies bestowed upon
+them, and, therefore, made the dupes and credulous followers of knaves
+and impostors of every kind!
+
+In some cases, however, the missionaries have happily succeeded in
+opening the eyes of the deluded people to the cheat which is practised on
+them.  One of the most intelligent of the Caffers of Southern Africa,
+having been led to suspect the integrity of the rain-maker, visited Mr.
+Shaw, and told him of his determination to have the question set at rest,
+whether or no the rain-maker could produce rain.  He had summoned the
+rain-maker to meet Mr. Shaw in an open plain, when all the Caffers of the
+surrounding kraals were to be present to decide the affair.  Accordingly,
+at the appointed time and place, thousands of Caffers from the
+neighbouring country assembled in their war-dresses.  Mr. Shaw, being
+confronted with a celebrated rain-maker, declared publicly that God alone
+gave rain; and then offered to present the rain-maker with a team of oxen
+if he should succeed in making it rain within a certain specified time.
+This was agreed to; the rain-maker began his ceremonies, which are said
+to have been well calculated to impose upon an ignorant and superstitious
+people.  The time having expired without any signs of rain, the chief who
+had called together the meeting asked the rain-maker why he had so long
+imposed upon them?  The rain-maker complained that he had not been paid
+well enough for his rain; and appealed to all present, whether rain had
+not always been produced when he had been properly paid.  Mr. Shaw then
+pointed out some half-famished cattle belonging to the rain-maker, which
+were seen on a neighbouring hill starving for want of pasturage, and
+remarked, that if he really possessed his boasted skill, he would not
+have neglected his own interests.  To this the rain-maker cleverly
+replied, "I never found a difficulty in making rain until _he_ (pointing
+to Mr. Shaw) came among us; but now, no sooner do I collect the clouds,
+and the rain is about to fall, than immediately there begins a sound of
+_ting_, _ting_, _ting_, (alluding to the chapel-bell,) which puts the
+clouds to flight, and prevents the rain from descending on your land."
+Mr. Shaw was not able to tell what effect this ingenious excuse had upon
+the majority of the Caffers, but he had the satisfaction of knowing that
+the intelligent chief, who consulted him on the subject, never _bought_
+any more rain.
+
+
+
+
+Already Published in this Series.
+
+
+I.--THE SNOW STORM.
+II.--THE FROZEN STREAM.
+III.--THE RAIN CLOUD.
+
+
+
+
+Shortly will be Published.
+
+
+IV.--THE DEW DROP.
+V.--THE THUNDER STORM.
+VI.--THE TEMPEST.
+
+
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+
+{18}  Physico-Theology by the Rev. Wm. Derham.
+
+{55}  See Frontispiece to this Chapter, p. 36.
+
+{85}  See Frontispiece to this Chapter, p. 74.
+
+{133}  This plan was brought before the notice of the British Association
+for the advancement of Science in the year 1840.
+
+{155}  Harvey's Meteorology, in the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana.
+
+{181}  One of the stones which fell at L'Aigle, on being analysed by
+Thenard, gave--
+
+Silica         46 per cent.
+Magnesia       10
+Iron           45
+Nickel         2
+Sulphur        5
+
+{210}  See Frontispiece to this Chapter, p. 190.
+
+
+
+
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