THE WEATHER, AND WEATHER PROPHETS. 147 



only a serene, but a calm night, when so near the full as 

 to appear round to the eye a tendency of which we 

 have assured ourselves by long continued and registered 

 observation. This, however, is more than a " simple 

 connotation." The effect in question, so far as the 

 clearance of the sky is concerned, is traceable to a dis- 

 tinct physical cause, the warmth radiated from its highly 

 heated surface ; though why the effect should not continue 

 for several nights after the full, remains problematic. 



(8.) Lunar prognostics about the weather may be 

 classed under three several heads, viz., ist, Simple 

 connotations of the appearance of halos, coronas, lunar 

 rainbows, and " a watery" moon, as prognostics of wet. 

 No doubt they do indicate the presence of vapour, pass- 

 ing into cloud, in the higher regions of the air (in that of 

 the rainbow, actual rain not far away), and so may be 

 put on a par with the indications which may sometimes 

 be gathered from the behaviour of birds, especially such 

 as fly high, and make long excursions, and which may 

 convey to us some notion of their cogitations as to the 

 coming weather ; which are perhaps more likely to be 

 right than our own, as founded on a wider range of per- 

 ception. 2d, Purely arbitrary laws or rules founded on 

 the hour of the day or night at which the changes of the 

 moon take place. There is (or was a few years ago, for 

 we believe the race is dying out) hardly a small farmer 

 or farm-labourer who had not some faith in certain " wea- 

 ther-tables" in the "Farmer's Almanac," ascribed (we 

 need hardly say falsely) to the late Sir W. Herschel, and 

 which went on this principle. Others, again, pressed 



