472 The Natural History of Selb 



orne 



AURORA BOREALIS. 



NOVEMBER i, 1787. The N. aurora made a particular 

 appearance, forming itself into a broad, red, fiery belt, which 

 extended from E. to W. across the welkin: but the moon 

 rising at about ten o'clock in unclouded majesty in the E. 

 put an end to this grand but awful meteorous phenomenon. 

 WHITE. 



BLACK SPRING, 1771. 



DR. JOHNSON says, that "in 1771 the season was so severe 

 in the island of Skye, that it is remembered by the name 

 of the ' black spring.' The snow, which seldom lies at all, 

 covered the ground for eight weeks, many cattle died, and 

 those that survived were so emaciated that they did not re- 

 quire 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 dreadful 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. 



TK imprisoned winds slumber within tJicir caves 

 Fasl bound : the fickle vane, emblem of change, 

 Wavers no more, long settling to a point. 



All nature nodding seems composed : thick stream 

 From land, from flood up-drawn, dimming the day 

 " Like a dark ceiling stand ':" slow thro 1 the air 



