236 Meteorologizal Observations ai Edinburgh. 
March 15.—Obseure morning and colder; some tight snow 
showers and a clear windy night. 
March \16.—Fine clear morning, but showers of snow and 
rain came in the afternoon. 
March \17.—Clear morning. Wanecloud and other modifi- | 
cations were followed about noon by showers of snow and rail 
from the northward. ‘Travelling on to Stirling, ] found the at= 
mosphere become much warmer. The sun came out, and the 
evening was mild and calm. The snow lay on the mountains 
while the lower lands were warm. I noticed stackenclouds or 
cumuli rising from behind the higher hills; others seemed to” 
sit upon them, and to preserve the cumulativeness of structure 
just as when they float upon the diurnal vapour plane. i 
There seems to be the same almost-constant tendency to pro-_ 
duce rainclouds in these hilly regions hereabout, as I have be= 
fore noticed in those of Wales. I have noticed also some other 
circumstances common to the atmospheric phenomena of both 
countries, and which probably belong to mountainous districts” 
in general. The rain does not generally fall in such large and 
deluging streams as often happens in the flat countries of Eng= 
land. The interchange of sunny clearness.and of showers is 
more rapid, and the sondercloud* and wanecloud™ have not 
usually such a well defined character. This latter circumstance 
1 cannot easily account for, except it be that the moister air of | 
these regions conducts off more readily the electric fluid from 
the modifications, and thus weakens the specific cause of their 
particular characters. Jt can hardly be owing to the elevated | 
peaks of the mountains approaching nearer to the clouds, as the 
wanecloud sometimes preserves its form when lodging, or at 
least in close apposition to the top of a mountain, in the same 
manner as it does to a mountainous stackencloud, as noticed by 
Aratus : ; 
“HI veGzdy Soems muynceracs ev xogudyaiy, &e. j 
The constant windy state of Edinburgh have I often noticed on 
the mountainous shores of England and Wales; and ina number 
of small balloons which were flying about over Edinburgh, I did] 
not notice any to get a second current, as was generally the 
case in my experiments with balloons in England, T shall pro= 
ceed, with your permission, to communicate further observations 
on the nepheology of this country in your next. 
I remain, sir, &c. 
Stirling, March 17, 1616. Tnomas ForsTER. 
* j, e, cirrocumulus and cirrostratus. 
