METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS 375 



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 following that dread- 

 ful 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. 



ON THE DARK, STILL, DRY, WARM WEATHER 



OCCASIONALLY HAPPENING IN THE WINTER MONTHS 



Th' imprisoned 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 stretched from blade to blade 

 The wavy net-work whitens all the field. 



Pushed by the weightier atmosphere, up springs 

 The ponderous Mercury, from scale to scale 

 Mounting, amidst the Torricellian tube. 1 



While high in air, and poised upon his wings 

 Unseen, the soft, enamored wood-lark runs 

 Thro' all his maze of melody ; the brake 

 Loud with the blackbird's bolder note resounds. 



Soothed 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 eyry, tempest torn. 



The ploughman inly smiles to see upturn 

 His mellow glebe, best pledge of future crop : 



