138 Occasional Meteorological Remarks and Observations* 



liant lightning I ever saw, which illuminated the landscape in 

 the most splendid manner, as bright as noon-day ; and when the 

 momentary flash was over, left the eye in a state of excitation, 

 which is hardly to be believed without experiencing it. 



July 22d to 29th. — The weather was very oppressive at 

 Paris, particularly from the total want of wind, which rendered 

 it almost insupportable. One day, if I recollect right, M. Che- 

 valier's thermometer on the Quai des Horloges stood at 84°Fahr. 



Near Edinburgh, September 10th. — On the 8th, the wind, 

 which has been long in the east, shifted to the S. W., yet the 

 foggy weather continued. This is what I have frequently ob- 

 served, that the fog and vapours which, during a course of eas- 

 terly wind, have been accumulating in the west, return when the 

 wind has returned to the S. W., for a day or so before the wea- 

 ther becomes fine and clear. At the same time the barometer, 

 which had been kept up to the unusual height of above 30.1, 

 (400 feet above the sea,) declined. The evening of the 8th 

 looked stormy, and a tremendous morning succeeded. From 

 10 a. to 9| M., or less than twelve hours, the barometer fell .418. 

 It was attended with a violent hurricane and rain. But about 

 1 p. m. (on the 9th) the mercury having begun to rise, the 

 nimbi and dense cumuli cleared off to the east, while cirri and 

 cirro-cumuli formed an arch over the sky, bringing symptoms 

 of fine weather from the west ; and the evening accordingly 

 proved delightfully clear. About 11 p. m. I observed a very 

 remarkable auroral phenomenon, which consisted of variously 

 shooting threads of light, forming an arch round Ursa major, 

 and at each extremity shooting downwards with peculiar beau- 

 ty, although the moon shone at the time. From above the 

 upper point of the arch, beautifully electrified cirri, rather of 

 the comoid kind, played in long lambent flakes till they com- 

 pletely reached the zenith, impelled by a very violent wind, 

 which blew nearly from the N. W. by N. That these clouds 

 were not distant from the earth was evident by the excessive 

 smartness of their motions as they spread over the sky, and as 

 the strong gusts of wind seemed to impel them at the same mo- 

 ment as I felt them, and caused their flakes to play as the flame 

 of alcohol does in a draught of air. That they were clouds 

 highly electrified I have no doubt, and they obscured bright 

 stars. The simply auroral part of the spectacle was a very bril- 



