CHAP. 2. 4. OF CLOUDS. 55 



Storms, a feature of cirrostratus, like the cyma of 

 architecture.* I have seen cirrostratus which 

 did not lie, as it usually does, in a horizontal 

 plane. A feature occurred on the 5th of March, 

 1810, in the North East, which was a long 

 tapering inclined and curved column of dark 

 lakecoloured specks; above it were cirri scattered 

 about like loose hay. But to describe the cir- 

 rostratus in all its varieties of mottles, specks, 

 streaks, and lines, would swell too much this 

 chapter, and the meteorologist must observe 

 them for himself. 



SECTION IV. 



Of the Varieties of the Stackencloud. 



CUMULI vary in size and in the regularity of 

 their forms; they have all the tendency to 

 assume an irregular hemespherical figure: those 

 which attend fair settled weather, which form 

 soon after sunrise, become large and inosculate 

 into extensive masses in the middle of the day, 

 and subside in the evening, are of the most 



* PI. III. Fig. 2. 



