LECTURE IV. 



THE WEATHER, AND WEATHER PROPHETS. 

 " Varium et mutabile semper." 



[HERE is an ugly look about the sky, and 

 the wind is getting up, and Fitzroy's storm- 

 signals were hoisted yesterday evening and 

 are up now. We shall have a gale. I am 

 afraid we must put off our boating for to-day anyhow," 



said my friend A to his wife the other day ; " there 



may be nothing in it ; but we should look very silly to 

 come home half-drowned in the face of a warning." 



(2.) And it was well the lady took the advice. It was 

 but a pleasure party after all. But the fishermen to 

 whom the loss of a day was a serious matter, put off. 

 Not that they altogether pooh-pooh'd the inverted cone 

 and drum : but they reckoned on twenty-fours' law at 

 least, and suffered for their miscalculation. One boat 

 came on shore in fragments, several suffered damage, 

 and all agreed it would have been wiser to have stayed 

 at home. 



