JANUARY, 1883. 269 



and so far healed as to enable it to be a most inveterate 

 thief and unconscionable vagabond about the autumn 

 fields and the winter kail-yard. It is a thorough rogue 

 in appearance, and almost forces us to acknowledge the 

 truth of our friend's assertion, that there is something 

 peculiarly mischievous and wicked about a "black 

 sheep." 



During the tempestuous weather of last week we 

 observed on several occasions a remarkable effect in 

 cloudland. For several days a great mass of clouds 

 had lain across from Ben Breac to the head of 

 Glen Creran, in an immovable bank, while the storm 

 had been raging both above and below. Suddenly a 

 light cloud, advancing from the south-east, was found to 

 be circling, not vertically but horizontally, as if an 

 irregular roller had been dragged across the sky, the 

 revolutions being frequent, turbulent, and extending 

 to a considerable distance. Later in the day, towards 

 Glenure, we observed what seemed somewhat explana- 

 tory of the phenomenon. A stiff gale was blowing from 

 the south-east, above the bank of clouds before men- 

 tioned, whipping off the edges, and whirling them out- 

 ward away from the mountain tops, while another gale, 

 more southerly, but apparently blowing under the cloud 

 bank, met these cloud patches at an upward-tending 

 angle, given by the mountains it had met and slanted 

 over ; and thus they were carried across the sky in the 

 embrace of the horizontally-cyclonic breeze. The sky 

 was very disturbed, and seemed to point to severe gales, 

 turned in different directions from the mountain range 

 stretching from Cruachan to Glencoe ; but as to why the 

 great bank of cloud should have so long remained out- 

 side their influence we could not satisfy ourselves. 



