454 The Natural History of Selborne 



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 require 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 sur- 

 prising 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. 



T6' imprison 'a winds slumber within their caves 

 Fast 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 thrf the air 



