156 AGRICULTURE ON THE PACIFIC SLOPE 



"Weather signs." From ancient times certain 

 appearances of the sky and clouds, and feel of the air, 

 have been used to foretell the weather, at least for the 

 next day, or even longer. Many such signs and rules 

 are based upon long experience. Some hold good 

 for one place, while others are more general. Thus 

 for thousands of years it has been held that pink or 

 "rosy" cloudlets at sunset promise clear weather for 

 the following day, while a gray, or " angry " lurid red, 

 sunset foretells rain or storm. The same is mostly 

 true of such clouds at sunrise. The gathering of a 

 cloud-cap on certain mountain peaks is held to be a 

 sure sign of " bad weather " for mountain climbing, 

 while a cloudlet like a weather vane being reeled like 

 a bobbin by the wind from a mountain peak means 

 continued good weather. 



In the East the croaking of the green tree frogs is held 

 to mean a coming rain; but in California the green tree 

 frog croaks all through the dry summer. In Europe 

 the country people put much faith in a frog which is 

 kept in a small water tank in which a branch is placed; 

 when the frog stays in the water, it will go on raining, 

 but if it mounts up on the branch, the sky will clear. 



In the Mississippi Valley a heavy, " muggy " feel in 

 the air, which makes it hard to breathe, will generally 

 indicate that a thunderstorm is coming, long before a 

 cloud is seen. The breaking of the storm quickly re- 

 moves the " mugginess." 



