12 Notei of a meteorological Tour. 



night the sky was clouded with large clouds in different altitude?. 

 I had to day a fine opportunity of confirming, by processes I saw 

 going on about the mountains, the o])inion I have long had of 

 the electrical agency concerned in producing the forms of clouds, 

 of which I shall treat more largely elsewhere. 



May 8. — Left Fort William early, and crossing the ferr}', 

 proceeded through Glenco to Tyndarum. The clouds still oa 

 the hills, and gentle showers in the morning. I observed to- 

 day one of the peaked mountains of Argvleshire involved about 

 its base in small rain, while its pointed, sunniiit was capped vvith 

 the raincloud in a less watery state. What struck me as re- 

 markable was this, that the cloud did not ternnnate in rain bv 

 degrees, but there seemed a distinct boundary between the cloud 

 at the top, and the rain surrounding its lower part and descend- 

 ing to the ground. In the evening most of the clouds were 

 much higher, and the air got sharper. I met Hogg the Etick 

 shepherd and poet at a sn)all public-house near the glen. 



May 9. — We proceeded to Stirling by way of Callender ; the 

 weather cold, cloudy, and vvindy. 



May 10. — Returned to Edinburgh. Cold, windy, and cloudy 

 day. 



May 11. — (At Edinburgh.) The weather still bearing the 

 character of winter. Hard showers of snow, hail and sleet, with 

 fair intervals. The frondescence is very little advanced yet ; and 

 an Englishman would suppose it March instead of May. 



May 12. — Fair day, with coUimon dayclouds, and some fea- 

 tures of the light modification, particularly the cirrus in the 

 morning. The air warmer than yesterday. The swallows are 

 by no means common yet, only a few stragglers here and there. 



May 13. — Left Edinburgh, and came at night to Jedburgh, 

 by way of Melrose. Fair morning, and clouds high ; cold night. 



May 14. — I proceeded to Carlisle; the weathei- cold in the 

 shade, with fine diurnal stackenclouds. I saw the Hirundo ur- 

 hica at Jedburgh aljbey, and first saw and heard H'lrundines 

 upodes at the same place. 



May 15. — I proceeded by Keswick to Ambleside*. Fair 

 morning with much waneclouds ; in the evening rain am.ong the 

 mountains all the way along Ulswater to Ambleside. 1 noticed 

 among other things, that being high on the hill there was no rain, 

 but only a thick mist, or cloud scarcely wetting me. As I got lower 

 down the mist became small drops of rain, producing however 

 the obscurity of fog ; and when I got to the valleys below it was 

 become regular rain in streams. The watery particles seem to 

 collect into larger and larger rainstrcams in descending. 



* I'erliaps the best drawn clouds of any I have seen, were those shown 

 to lue by Mr. Greene, an artist of Ambleside. 



May 



