( 115 ) 



Remarhs on the Sea Tree. By Mr "William Baied. 



Every person, the most unlearned even in tlie science of meteorology, 

 it may be observed, pretends, by looking at tbe clouds, to be able to 

 foretell the changes of weather ; and many whose occupations lead 

 them -to be much in the open air, have attained a very considerable 

 degree of knowledge in the matter. From observing that under 

 certain states of the clouds a change of weather has taken place, the 

 weather-wise can with considerable confidence predict a similar change 

 to take place, upon certain circumstances occurring again. Such ob- 

 servations may be duly authenticated, but it is more difiicult to assign 

 a satisfactory reason for the change taking place. 



The object of this paper is to lay before the Club a few observations 

 upon a variety of one of the modifications of clouds, as connected with 

 the weather, which I have made at various times and places ; and 

 though I shall not j)erhaps be able to assign a satisfactory reason why 

 such a connexion should exist, I hope that the establishing the fact, 

 that there is such a connexion, will be more valuable, and perhaps 

 better suited for this Club, than an ill-contrived theory to support the 

 assertion. The great object of this Club is to collect facts; and we 

 should always bear in mind, that whilst the finest spun theories have 

 been swept away, like the gossamer web, or the morning mist, before 

 the fii-st breeze of wind that has blown, or have vanished "like the 

 Borealis race, that flit e'er ye can point their place", the hardier and 

 more stubborn facts iipon which they have rested, have withstood the 

 hardest gales — as the mighty oak, "the monarch of the wood," only 

 rises stronger from every blast that blows, and strikes its roots the 

 deeper in the ground, the more the tempest strives to overwhelm it, — 

 so they have only gained more strength and stability from the rude 

 assaults that have overthrown the superstructures which have been 

 built upon them. 



Of the seven modifications, or species, into which Howard and other 

 meteorologists have divided the clouds, three are simple and primary, 

 the others are compound. One of these primary species, called the 

 " Cirrus or Curl-cloud," is perhaps the most beautiful and diversified, 

 and is certainly the highest of all the modifications. Every person 

 must be acquainted with it in some one or other of its varieties 

 — those beautiful white, almost transparent, and finely formed tufts, 

 like locks of silken hair, which we so often see in fine weather pencilled 

 high up in the clear blue sky, especially when we have the wind in 

 the east, and from which shape the cloud takes its name of "cirrus or 

 curl-cloud " — the wild, dishevelled, streaming, poetical-looking 

 appearance, which the same lock of hair puts on at times, called the 

 grey-mare's tail, proverbial as a forerunner of a gale — the beautifidly 

 reticulated and scale-like cloud, which we often see at an amazing 



