:,( OF CLOUDS. CHAP. 2. 2. 



SECTION II. 



Of the Varieties of the Sondercloud. 



THE permanent features of any cloud should 

 be distinguished from those which are only 

 transitory, or which the cloud exhibits in the 

 progress of its change from one modification 

 to another. I have before noticed, that in the 

 change from the cirrus to the cirrocumulus, a 

 number of appearances present themselves, 

 which T cannot be referred to either. They 

 generally, however, end in a determinable 

 modification, which I call its permanent form; 

 and in which it generally remains for some 

 time, and then evaporates, or changes again. 

 The permanent features of the cirrocumulus 

 vary at different times, and the varieties are 

 connected with particular states of the atmo- 

 sphere. In fine warm weather in summer, par- 

 ticularly towards evening, the nubeculae which 

 compose this cloud are often large, well defined, 

 and separate from each other: the whole sky 

 is sometimes replete with them. This feature 

 is often the forerunner of fine and wholesome, 

 after a long continuation of wet and variable, 



