'Remarks on the Sea Tree. By Mr WILLIAM BAIRD. 



EVERY person, the most unlearned even in the science of meteorology, 

 it may be observed, - pretend*, by looking at the clouds, to be able to 

 foretell the changes of weather ; and many whose occupations lead them 

 to be much in the open air, have attained a very considerable degree of 

 knowledge in the matter. From observing that under certain states of 

 the clouds a change of weather has taken place, the weather-wise can 

 with considerable confidence predict a similar change to take place, upon 

 certain circumstances occurring again. Such observations may be duly 

 authenticated, but it is more difficult to assign a satisfactory reason for 

 the change taking place. 



The object of this paper is to lay before the Club a few observations 

 upon a variety of one of the modifications of clouds, as connected with 

 the weather, which I have made at various times and places ; and though 

 I shall not perhaps be able to assign a satisfactory reason why such a 

 connexion should exist, I hope that the establishing the fact, that there 

 is such a connexion, will be more valuable, and perhaps better suited for 

 this Club, than an ill-contrived theory to support the assertion. The 

 great object of this Club is to collect facts ; and we should always bear 

 in mind, that whilst the finest spun theories have been swept away, like 

 the gossamer web, or the morning mist, before the first breeze of wind 

 that has blown, or have vanished " like the Borealis race, that flit e'er 

 ye can point their place," the hardier and more stubborn facts upon which 

 they have rested, have withstood the hardest gales as the mighty oak, 

 " the monarch of the wood," only rises stronger from every blast that 

 blows, and strikes its roots the deeper in the ground, the more the tem- 

 pest strives to overwhelm it, so they have only gained more strength 

 and stability from the rude assaults that have overthrown the superstruc- 

 tures which have been built upon them. 



Of the seven modifications, or species, into which Howard and other 

 meteorologists have divided the clouds, three are simple and primary, 

 the others are compound. One of these primary species, called the 

 " Cirrus or Curl-cloud," is perhaps the most beautiful and diversified, 

 and is certainly the highest of all the modifications. Every person must 

 be acquainted with it in some one or other of its varieties those beau- 

 tiful white, almost transparent, and finely formed tufts, like locks of 

 silken hair, which we so often see in fine weather pencilled high up in the 

 clear blue sky, especially when we have the wind in the east, and from 

 which shape the cloud takes its name of " cirrus or curl-cloud" the 

 wild, dishevelled, streaming, poetical-looking appearance, which the same 

 lock of hair puts on at times, called the grey-mare's tail, proverbial as a 

 forerunner of a gale the beautifully reticulated and scale- like cloud, 

 which we often see at an amazing distance in the cerulean sky, and which 



