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pleasing forms, dis|M>sitions, and colours, and of 

 moderate si/e, presages line dry warm and calm 

 da\ - : l>ut cold, rain, and temiwst follow dark, 

 abrupt, dense, shaggy Cum., covering the sky, and 

 rolling on each other. Hemispherical, silvery 

 \\ Inti- Cum. presages thunder. 



Strntiis, fall or night-cloud, the lowest of clouds, 

 is a widely extended, horizontal sheet, of varied 

 thickness, seldom rising above 4000 feet, and often 

 quite close to the earth .- surface. It is common in 



Stratus. 



summer and autumn, often from sunset to sunrise, 

 and is densest at or after midnight. It arises in 

 calm clear evenings, after warm days, from the 

 sinking and flattening out of Cum., from the cool- 

 ing of moist air on damp ground, marshes, lakes, 

 rivers, or from the cooling or moist air mixed with 

 smoke enveloping great cities. From a height it is 

 seen spreading around like a sea, and creeping up 

 hillsides. After sunrise it rises higher, sometimes 

 forming Cum., and sometimes entirely disappear- 

 ing ; but it may quietly accumulate in layers, and 

 become Nim. 



Cirro-cumulus, or sonder-cloud, consists of Cir. 

 compressed into dense roundish-white cloudlets, or 

 woolly irregular tufts, and is found either in the 

 middle or high cloud layers. It forms the well- 

 known mackerel sky, but is also often seen through 

 breaks in lower clouds moving differently. It may 

 vanish or pass into Cir. or Cir.-s. Solar and lunar 

 coronre appear in it. It occurs in warm dry 

 weather and between summer showers, and pre- 

 sages increased heat. Cir.-c. very dense, round, 

 and close, and with Cum.-s. , presages a storm or 

 thunder. In winter it precedes a thaw and warm 

 wet weather. 



Cirro-stratus, or vane-cloud, consists of long, 

 thin, horizontal clouds, sometimes hairy, with bent 

 or undulated edges. It is found on the advancing 

 side of cyclonic storms, and hence is a sure prog- 

 nostic of wind or rain. Being of great extent, but 

 little depth, and at a great height, it is the most 

 usual source of solar and lunar halos. 



Cumiilo-stratiis, or twain-cloud, is a Cir.-s. mixed 

 with Cum. heaps, or a wide tlat base surmounted 

 by a bulky Cum., with fleecy protuberances or 

 rocky and mountain masses. It is much denser 

 than Cum., though being formed by less rapidly 

 ascending currents, the air is not dry enough to 

 round off sharply its tops. It often forms vast 

 banks of cloua, with overhanging masses. It is 

 common towards night in dry windy weather, when 

 it has a leaden hue. It generally arises from Cum. 

 becoming denser, wider, and protruding in large 

 irregular projections over the oase. It tends to 

 overspread the sky, and partly or wholly to become 

 Nim., and fall in showers. Cum.-s. is intermediate 



between clouds indicating fair and those indicating 

 rough, rainy weather, and att'-ml* nudden at mo 

 spheric changes. Distinct Cum. K. forms In-fore 

 launder. Cum.-B. increase* the grandeur of moun- 

 tain scenery, and drops on and envelop* mountain 

 tops like a curtain. 



A ///(/<i/\ , or < iimiilo c-irro stratus, the black rain- 

 cloud, is a cloud, or mixed system of clouds, with 

 rain or snow falling from it. It is a dense, con- 

 tinuous, horizontal black or gray sheet, with 

 fringed edges, having rolling masses of Cum. above 

 it and topped by Cir. Before rain, vast towering 

 masses or Cum. often pass into Cum.-s., which, 

 increasing in density, darkness, irregularity, and 

 extent, l>ecome Nim. capped by Cir.-s. Thunder- 

 storms are always accompanied by Nim. in it - most 

 perfect form. 



The term scud has been applied to loose vapoury 

 fragments of clouds driven by wind, and cumulonus 

 to very shaggy cumuli. 



The formation and height of clouds depend on 

 the quantity of vapour in the air, the course and 

 height of air-currents, the climate, season, tempera- 

 ture, disposition, and extent of sea and land, and 

 the heignt of land. The highest clouds yet ob- 

 served were Cir. at 43,800 feet elevation. Remark - 

 able cloud-rings prevail over the calm zones of the 

 equator, and over those of Cancer and Capricorn. 

 Tne tops of mountains are often capped by clouds 

 formed by the moisture in the air condensing as it 

 is forced up and over the hill. Clouds, viewed 

 from above in bright sunshine by the aeronaut or 

 mountaineer, appear as dense volumes of steam or 

 masses of white cotton. 



Clouds moderate the sun's rays during day, and 

 the earth's radiation during night. They always 

 exhibit positive or negative electricity, but of 

 greatest tension in thunderstorms. They are the 

 earners of the moisture required by plants ; of the 

 water of springs, lakes, and rivers ; and of the 

 polar, glacial, and winter snows, which cover 

 temporarily or permanently parts of the earth. 



In Britain, six or seven tenths of the sky is on an 

 average daily obscured by clouds. There is most 

 cloud in winter, and about mid -day, and least in 

 May or June, and during night. Summer and 

 autumn nights are freest of clouds. All the forms 

 of clouds may be seen in one day, often very much 

 commingled. 



Cloilffh, ARTHUR HUGH, poet, was born at 

 Liverpool, January 1, 1819. His father, a cotton- 

 merchant there, belonged to an old Denbighshire 

 family. In the winter of 1822-23 he emigrated 

 to Charleston, in South Carolina, and there the 

 boy mostly lived in the midst of a home-life of 

 singular happiness, until in November 1828 he 

 was sent back to school at Chester, and to Rugby 

 in the summer following. Dr Arnold had already 

 been head-master for a year, and his high ideal 

 of Christian dutv early made a profound impres- 

 sion upon the \oy. At Rugby he was fore- 

 most in athletic sports, edited for some time the 

 school magazine, and not only worked his way to 

 every honour open to him, but gained the warm 

 affection of all his school-fellows. In November 

 1837 he entered Balliol College, Oxford, but aston- 

 ished all who knew his powers by only obtaining a 

 second-class in 1841. In the spring of the follow- 

 ing year he was elected to a fellowship at Oriel. 

 < 'lough's residence at Oxford had fallen at a time 

 of fierce theological controversy, and his sensi- 

 tive spiritual nature reflected all the unrest of the 

 atmosphere around him. For a time he fell under 

 the spell of Newman's influence, but this was soon 

 followed by a period of severe inward struggle 

 between his absolute honesty of mind and the 

 religious prepossessions of his youth, the result of 

 which was that he felt it his duty to withdraw in 



