178 Art of deriving Interest 



Why do sheep, cattle, and fowls eat more voraciously, and 

 why is the sound of the distant bell and waterfall more dis- 

 tinctly heard, before rain ? 



Why do crows (rooks) fly aloft in wild disorder, why do 

 pigs make an unusual noise, and why do the dolphin and 

 porpoise approach the shore, before a tempest of wind ? 



Why do cattle snufF the air, roar, and appear frantic, be- 

 fore thunder ? 



Why do the joints of the aged feel painful before the ap- 

 proach of what is vulgarly termed " rough weather," and 

 why is the hypochondriac depressed when the mercury in the 

 barometer is low ? 



These are a few, and only a few, of the popular indications 

 of atmospherical changes : and though they may exhibit an 

 appearance of rural simplicity, yet as they are facts which 

 have evidently been taught " in Nature's school," and which 

 have obtained the sanction of ages ; connected too as they are 

 with a science which, notwithstanding its claims to antiquity, 

 may still be said to be in its infancy ; the philosopher will 

 allow that they come within the legitimate range of his in- 

 vestigation. Such natural phenomena, it may be safely in- 

 ferred, attracted the observation of mankind in the earliest 

 ages : we know that the Greeks and Egyptians wrote on the 

 subject ; the Jews too, a pastoral people, " could discern the 

 face of the sky ; " and, even in our day, shepherds may be 

 ranked among the " weather wise ;'" nor is there any thing 

 more common amongst country people at meeting than a 

 pinch of snuff, and some sage remarks on the state of the wea- 

 ther ; indeed, the universal mode of salutation in this country 

 used by strangers, or by such as wish to treat one another as 

 strangers, is uniformly a remark on the weather. " There is a 

 fine morning, a soft day, or a cold evening," are modes of 

 salutation with us, as common as is the " Salem Alikem" 

 (Peace be with you !) amongst the inhabitants of the more 

 serene countries of the East: and where familiarity is not in- 

 tended, if opportunity serves, more lengthened remarks are 

 introduced, such as "Do you think we shall have rain? What 

 is the age of the moon ? Do the clouds betoken wind ? What 

 effect will the late rain have on the crops?" &c. ; till the con- 

 versation is sufficiently extended to become a stepping-stone 

 to the discussion of politics. That this should be the case 

 where the climate is so variable is not at all surprising; the 

 wonder is, that a subject so intimately connected with the 

 comforts of man, and which daily presses itself on his observ- 

 ation, should remain (notwithstanding the facilities which 

 modern science affords for the study) not only unpopular, but 



