Chap. 87.] PROGNOSTICS DERIVED FROM ANIMALS. 123 



water. If, when the sea is calm, the water ripples in the har- 

 bour, with a hollow, murmuring noise, it is a sign of wind, 

 and if in winter, of rain as well. If the coasts and shores re- 

 echo while the sea is calm, a violent tempest may be expected ; 

 and the same when the sea, though calm, is heard to roar, or 

 throws up foam and bubbling spray. If sea pulmones 7 are 

 to be seen floating on the surface, they are portentous of stormy 

 weather for many days to come. Very frequently, too, the sea 

 is seen to swell in silence, and more so than when ruffled by an 

 ordinary breeze; this is an indication that the winds are at 

 work within its bosoin already. 



CHAP. 86. PROGNOSTICS DERIVED PROM TEMPESTS THEMSELVES. 



The reverberations, too, of the mountains, and the roaring 

 of the forests, are indicative of certain phenomena ; and the 

 same is the case when the leaves are seen to quiver, 8 without 

 a breath of wind, the downy filaments of the poplar or thorn 

 to float in the air, and feathers to skim along the surface of 

 the water. 9 In champaign countries, the storm gives notice of 

 its approach by that peculiar muttering 10 which precedes it ; 

 while the murmuring that is heard in the heavens affords us no 

 doubtful presage of what is to come. 



CHAP. 87. PROGNOSTICS DERIVED FROM AQUATIC ANIMALS, 



AND BIRDS. 



The animals, too, afford us certain presages ; dolphins, for 

 instance, sporting in a calm sea, announce wind in the quarter 

 from which they make their appearance. 11 When they throw 

 up the water in a billowy sea, they announce the approach of 

 a calm. The loligo, 12 springing out of the water, shell-fish 

 adhering to various objects, sea-urchins fastening by their 

 stickles upon the sand, or else burrowing in it, are so many in- 



7 Sea-" lungs." See B. ix. c. 71. 8 Ludentia. 



9 Virgil mentions these indications, Georg. i. 368-9. 



10 a Suus fragor." The winds, Fee remarks, however violent they may 

 be, make no noise unless they meet with an obstacle which arrests their 

 onward progress. 



11 Theophrastus, Cicero, and Plutarch state to a similar effect ; and it 

 is corroborated by the experience of most mariners. 



13 The ink- fish ; Sepia loligo of Linnaeus. See B. ix. c. 21. 



