52 OF CLOUDS. CHAP. 2. 3. 



I have often had occasion to mention the 

 cirrocumulus, as being very generally a fore- 

 boder of warmth. In Germany these clouds 

 are called little sheep : and Professor Heyne has 

 a note on them in his edition of Virgil.* And 

 our poet Bloomfield has likewise compared them 

 to a flock at rest, in a passage already cited. In 

 certain weather cirrocumulus rapidly forms in 

 different places in the sky, and soon subsides 

 again, as mentioned in another place. 



SECTION III. 



Of the Varieties of the WanechmL 



IT would be impossible to convey to the 

 reader a complete detail of all the varieties 

 of any cloud; for, as in every other natural 

 production, no two appear exactly similar in all 

 particulars of shape, size, and situation. But as 

 the clouds, countless and innumerable as their 

 shapes and sizes are, have a tendency, under 

 certain circumstances at present not precisely 

 known, to break out into some of the seven 



* Heyne's Virgil, 4 vols. 8vo. Lips. 1803, and Georg. i. 97, 

 p. 314 of vol. i. 



