CIUP. 2. 12. OF CLOUDS. 75 



long tapering columns, horizontal or inclined, of 

 a cloud composed sometimes of little cirrocu- 

 mulous nubeculae, and sometimes of those of a 

 sort of cirrostratus like little freckles ; or like 

 bundles of small streaks arranged in rows. 

 Mostly these little bunches of cloud are in a 

 plane; but I have thought, though it might 

 be an optical deception, that they have been 

 sometimes in a roundish column, giving a faint 

 resemblance to the tail of an armadillo. 



I once saw a column of this sort inclined, 

 curved, apparently pendant from a sort of cir- 

 rus, and coloured purple and lake by the setting 

 sun one afternoon in keen March weather.* 

 The cloud which gives what is caUed the 

 mackerelback sky is composed of the long wa- 

 ving cirrostrative nubeculae, but these some- 

 times acquire the apparent substance and solid 

 look of cirrocumulus. 



In the large and long beds of nubeculae, which 

 frequently float gently over in summer, there 

 is often cirrostratus and cirrocumulus in the 

 same bed: these change from one to another 

 by degrees; and there are intermediate and also 

 confused or plain features in the same flotilla of 

 travelling waters. 



* Described under the account of the cirrostratus. 



