436 METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



The case was just the same with us here in the south ; never were 

 so many barren cows known as in the spring following that dread- 

 ful period. Whole dairies missed being in calf together. 



At the end of March the fa*ce of the earth was naked to a sur- 

 prising degree. Wheat hardly to be seen, and no signs of any 

 grass ; turnips all gone, and sheep in a starving way. All provi- 

 sions rising in price. Farmers cannot sow for want of rain. 

 WHITE. 



ON THE DARK, STILL, DRY, WARM WEATHER, 



OCCASIONALLY HAPPENING IN THE WINTER MONTHS. 



TH' imprison'd winds slumber within their caves 

 Fast bound : the fickle vane, emblem of change, 

 Wavers no more, long-settling to a point. 



All nature nodding seems composed : thick steams 

 From land, from flood up-drawn, dimming the day, 

 " Like a dark ceiling stand : " slow thro' the air 

 Gossamer floats, or stretch'd from blade to blade 

 The wavy net-work whitens all the field. 



Push'd by the weightier atmosphere, up springs 

 The ponderous Mercury, from scale to scale 

 Mounting, amidst the Torricellian tube.* 



While high in air, and pois'd upon his wings 

 Unseen, the soft, enamour'd wood-lark runs 

 Thro' all his maze of melody ; the brake 

 Loud with the black-bird's bolder note resounds. 



Sooth'd by the genial warmth, the cawing rook 

 Anticipates the spring, selects her mate, 

 Haunts her tall nest- trees, and with sedulous care 

 Repairs her wicker eyrie, tempest torn. 



The ploughman inly smiles to see upturn 

 His mellow glebe, best pledge of future cron 

 With glee the gardener eyes his smoking beas % 

 E'en pining sickness feels a short relief. 



The Barometer. 



