Mr Scott on the Temperature of Shetland. 121 



a few times, when it always appeared very faint, and had little 

 sensible motion. 



Connected with the subject of meteorology, I may mention a 

 remarkable phenomenon which fell under my observation when 

 in Shetland, and of which I now regret I did not keep a register. 

 In a room on the ground-floor of the house of Belmont, is a 

 wall-press, or cupboard, on a shelf of which wine-glasses and 

 tumblers are usually placed, in an inverted position. These 

 glasses are at times heard to emit a sound similar to what might 

 be produced by striking their outsides gently with a piece of 

 metal (as the edge of a knife), or by raising their edges a little, 

 and suffering them again to fall sharply on the shelf. This 

 tinkling or ringing sound, which is heard in moderate, also in per- 

 fectly calm, weather, is uniformly the prognosticator of a gale of 

 wind; and the confidence reposed in its fidelity is such, that 

 boats, corn-stacks, and other things exposed to injury from wind, 

 are at its warning either properly secured or placed under cover. 

 The quarter from which the storm is to come seems to have no 

 effect in producing this phenomenon, the sound being heard 

 equally before a southerly as a northerly, easterly, or westerly 

 gale. The degree, however, of its intensity is proportioned to 

 the violence of the coming storm ; the sound being louder and 

 more frequently repeated before very violent than before less 

 violent gales. It is heard sometimes a longer, sometimes a 

 shorter, time before the commencement of a storm, but general- 

 ly several hours ; and the tinkling is repeated at irregular in- 

 tervals till the storm begin, and also sometimes during its conti- 

 nuance. 



Notwithstanding of patient investigation, I discovered nothing 

 peculiar about the press, which is formed in the wall, and lined 

 with planed fir plank, nor any agitation of the air near it, nor 

 could I ever observe the glasses in motion, though I often watch- 

 ed them closely while ringing. I observed only that their tink- 

 ling was louder, and also more frequent, when the door of the 

 room was shut than when it was open. 



The sound, I am satisfied, was not produced by any agitation 

 of the shelf supporting the glasses, nor by a current of air shak- 

 ing the glasses themselves ; the only alternative, then, appears 

 to be that it proceeded from sudden contraction or expansion of 



