78 OP CLOUDS. CHAP. 2. 14. 



SECTION XIV. 



Of the Mixture of the Modifications. 



IN showery and variable weather, when there 

 is much cloud in the sky, we observe often such 

 a mixture of different modifications as must 

 puzzle us to commemorate. Here and there 

 the semiformed shapes of cirrostratus appear 

 in the general mass : in another place irregular 

 cirrus or cirrocumulus ; flat sheets seem to drop 

 down into little detached clouds of freckled 

 appearance like cirrocumuli ; cumuli are seen 

 under, and milklike whiteness spread aloft in 

 other places. In time the dense continuity of 

 cumulostratus prevails, and the confusion of 

 nimbus and the fall of Rain again take place. 

 To be acquainted with all these different ap- 

 pearances and the different look of different 

 skies, the meteorologist must watch them him- 

 self, continually and attentively. 



I am desirous of knowing whether in the 

 equatorial and polar climates any great difference 

 in the modifications prevails from those which 

 happen here; from what I can collect from 

 travellers and from drawings, there are few dif- 



