396 METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 



AURORA BOREALIS. November 1, 1787. The north 

 aurora made a particular appearance, forming itself 

 into a broad, red, fiery belt, which extended from east 

 to west across the welkin : but the moon rising at 

 about ten o'clock, in unclouded majesty, in the east, 

 put an end to this grand, but awful meteorous pheno- 

 menon. WHITE. 



BLACK SPRING, 1771. Dr. Johnson says, that, 

 " in 1771, the season was so severe in the Island of 

 Skye, that it is remembered by the name of the black 

 spring. The snow, which seldom lies at all, covered 

 the ground for eight weeks ; many cattle died, and 

 those that survived were so emaciated that they did 

 not require the male at the usual season/' The case 

 was just the same with us here in the south ; never 

 were so many barren cows known as in the spring fol- 

 lowing that dreadful period. Whole dairies missed 

 being in calf together. 



At the end of March, the face of the earth was 

 naked to a surprising degree : wheat hardly to be 

 seen, and no signs of any grass; turnips all gone, 

 and sheep in a starving way ; all provisions rising in 

 price. Farmers cannot sow for want of rain. 



WHITE. 



