INDICATIONS OP THE WEATHER. 117 



moon or sun, are also given. I. From the moon; darkened when 

 new, she betokens rain. If red, wind; if serene in the fourth 

 night she promises fair weather for that month. II. From the 

 sun; if in rising, spotted, or showing only the centre of his orb, 

 rain is portended. If of a bluish color in setting, rain, if red, 

 wind. If spotted at setting, rain and wind; and if bright at ris- 

 ing and setting, clear weather with a northerly wind. 



After these beautiful descriptions, which bring the poem home 

 to every one, follow nine indications of fair weather. The bright- 

 nes of the stars, and of the rising moon. The unclouded sky, 

 and kingfishers not expanding their wings to the sun; sows no 

 longer tossing wisps of straws into the air. The clouds floating 

 low; the silence of the owl at sunset, whose hooting was once 

 supposed to forebode rain. The falcon soaring after the lark, and 

 the crows social, and cawing with clear notes. Many of these 

 signs are even now considered as harbingers of the coming change 

 of weather, and more particularly the formation and arrangement 

 of certain clouds, to which we shall again allude. No doubt the 

 early observers of the weather often mistook the indications of 

 those aspects we have mentioned, and inferred conclusions from 

 mere casual circumstances. 



The signs which usually precede the coming tempest are thus 

 beautifully given by Thomson. .(Winter, 1. 118, ei seq.) 



" When from the pallid sky the sun descends, 

 With many a spot, that o'er his glaring orb 

 Uncertain wanders, stain'd red fiery streaks 

 Begin to flush around. The reeling clouds 

 Stagger with dizzy poise, as doubting yet 

 Which master to obey ; while rising slow, 

 Blank, in the leaden-colored east, the moon . 

 Wears a wan circle round her blunted horns. 

 Seen through the turbid, fluctuating air 

 The stars obtuse emit a shivering ray ; 

 Or frequent seem to shoot athwart the gloom, 

 And long behind them trail the whitening blaze. 

 Snatch'd in short eddies, plays the wither'd leaf; 

 And on the flood the dancing feather floats. 

 With broaden'd nostrils to the sky upturn'd 

 The conscious heifer snuffs the stormy gale. 

 Even as the matron, at her nightly task, 



