CO OF CLOUDS. CHAP. 2. 5. 



v 



which veil the meadows and vallies through a 

 summer night, and ascend in the morning. As 

 the temperature decreases in autumn, the stratus 

 becomes thicker; the rays of the sun seem 

 hardly able to overcome it, and it sometimes 

 lasts throughout whole days ; thus it gave rise 

 in the minds of the ancients, whose organization 

 led them to express physical facts metaphori- 

 cally, to the fable of Phoebus and Python.* 



In the neighbourhood of great cities these 

 fogs, impregnated with numerous effluvia and 

 smoke, have a yellow appearance which is ex- 

 planable; but even in country places the yellow 

 fogs of November extend over large tracts of 

 land. 



Dense fogs also happen sometimes, whicli 

 appear suddenly, in different places; while at 

 other times fogs continue for weeks together ; 

 such as that very thick and long fog, though 



* Thus Phoebus, or the sun, is solicited by Cupid or love 

 the vernal influence to court Daphne, and effect the fruits of 

 love in summer's productions. He boasts to the little god of 

 his recent victory over Python, that is, the fog spreading his 

 pestiferous body over the meadows. 



" Qui modo pestifero tot jugera ventre prementem 

 Stravimus innumeris tumidum Pythona agittis." 



Ovid. Met. II. 10. 



