ON THE POPULARITY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 119 



description renders it impossible to mistake them, and is indeed so just as to be 

 referred to in scientific works. 



The Cumulo-stratus. 

 M Now eve o'erhangs the western cloud's thick brow ; 

 The far-stretch'd curtain of retiring light, 

 With fiery treasures fraught ; that on the sight 

 Flash from its bulging sides, where darkness lours, 

 In fancy's eye a chain of mouldering towers ; 

 Or craggy coasts just rising into view, 

 Midst jav'lins dire, and darts of streaming blue." 



The poet describes " the slow-winged storm along the troubled skies,'' as follow- 

 ing this aspect of the cumulo-stratus, and in a scientific enumeration of clouds 

 now before me, it is observed of this modification of cloud, that " long ranges 

 often seem to rest upon our hills, where they generally indicate a change of wea- 

 ther!' 



The Cirrocumulus, or Sonder-Cloud. 





-" The white-rob'd clouds in clusters driv'n, 



And all the glorious pageantry of heaven. 



Far yet above these wafted clouds are seen 

 (In a remoter sky still more serene,) 

 Others, detached, 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." 



Perhaps a better description could not be given of this lovely form of cloud, so 

 often the accompaniment of a fine night, when the moon sails majestically along 

 in the azure heavens, surrounded and followed by milk-white squadrons of these 

 innumerable guards. 



I have purposely selected the preceding examples as being plain yet admir- 

 able descriptions, unattended (I will not say unincumbered) by any sentiment- 

 ality, with which poets often mix up — as they have a right to do — their descrip- 

 tions of, and allusions to, natural objects and scenery, thus giving distaste to 

 many well-meaning, but somewhat squeamish persons. I shall, however, before 

 closing this part of my subject, give a specimen of a somewhat more ornate style, 

 which indeed is not to be objected to, provided the boundaries of truth and pro- 

 bability are not infringed upon. As this style of description bears the character 

 of a study, though pleasing to many, it should be entered upon with caution. 

 The following extract is from Chateaubriand's Genius of Christianity. 



" The Bullfinch builds in the Hawthorn, the Gooseberry, and other bushes of 

 our gardens ; her eggs are slate-coloured, like the plumage of her back. We re- 

 collect having once found one of these nests in a Rose-bush ; it resembled a shell 



