A SHARP LOOKOUT. 7 



indicative of a storm as the total absence of clouds. 

 In this state of the atmosphere the stars are unusually 

 numerous and bright at night, which is also a bad 

 omen. 



I find this observation confirmed by Humboldt. 

 " It appears," he says, " that the transparency of the 

 air is prodigiously increased when a certain quantity 

 of water is uniformly diffused through it." Again, 

 he says that the mountaineers of the Alps " predict 

 a change of weather, when, the air being calm, the 

 Alps covered with perpetual snow seem on a sudden 

 to be nearer the observer, and their outlines are 

 marked with great distinctness on the azure sky." 

 He further observes that the same condition of the 

 atmosphere renders distant sounds more audible. 



There is one redness in the east in the morning 

 that means storm, another that means wind. The 

 former is broad, deep, and angry ; the clouds look like 

 a huge bed of burning coals just raked open ; the lat- 

 ter is softer, more vapory, and more widely extended. 

 Just at the point where the sun is going to rise, and 

 some minutes in advance of his coming, there some- 

 times rises straight upward a rosy column ; it is like 

 a shaft of deeply dyed vapor, blending with and yet 

 partly separated from the clouds, and the base of 

 which presently comes to glow like the sun itself. 

 The day that follows is pretty certain to be very 

 windy. At other times the under sides of the east- 

 ern clouds are all turned to pink or rose colored 

 wool; the transformation extends until nearly the 



