CHAP. 2. 2. OF CLOUDS. 51 



weather: it is strikingly contrasted to that 

 variety of Sondercloud which is composed of 

 very diminutive nubeculae; by which the sky 

 seems sometimes peppered, if I may so express 

 myself, with innumerable little round white 

 specks, which are sometimes of so light a tex- 

 ture as to be almost transparent. There is a 

 sort of cloud of this latter sort, which, though 

 its nubeculae preserve something of the round 

 shape of the cirrocumulus, has the light and 

 flimsy appearance, and almost the transparency 

 of cirrostratus of one kind, and it becomes very 

 difficult to know what name to give it. Refer 

 to the tenth section of this chapter. 



In stormy weather, previous to thunder, a 

 cirrocumulus often appears, whose component 

 nubeculae are very dense and compact round 

 bodies in very close arrangement. The preva- 

 lence of this feature, particularly when accom- 

 panied by cumulostratus, is a sure indication of 

 an approaching storm.* 



* If the cirrocumulus, as M. Howard supposes, be a cloud 

 positively charged and very retentive of it, the intensity and 

 decided character of this feature indicates the very high state 

 of its charge; this notion agrees very well with the circum- 

 stance of its accompanying thunderstorms. Are not the 

 densist Twainclouds formed from its conjunction with the 

 cumulus r* 



K 3 



