394 ON THE FORMATION OF CLOUDS. 



position for more than three hours. It disap- 

 peared in the evening, by the whole heavens being 

 overcast with dense cloud. 



On the 14th October, I saw some fantastical 

 transformations of clouds. They spring into 

 existence in the clear air; float, in ever-changing 

 shapes, for about a minute, then dissolve and 

 disappear. They mostly commence as exceedingly 

 thin filaments, which assemble in multitudes and 

 form dense clouds. At this stage they often 

 exhibit a whirling motion, spread out again into 

 filamentaceous portions, and rapidly disappear. 



As I have drawn no inference concerning 

 the formation and annihilation of the clouds before 

 described, I will take this opportunity of remark- 

 ing that the phenomena would lead one to think 

 that in the same horizontal stratum of air, the 

 temperature is very different within a very short 

 range of locality : and that there are vertical 

 columns or strata, of different temperatures, 

 arranged side by side alternately, over a small 

 space of country. 



On Casterton Fell, and over Biggins, &c. where 

 the vapour formed cloud, the air must have been 



