88 COLOURS OF CLOUDS. CHAP. 2. 16. 



seen. There is frequently a deep golden orange 

 close to the horizon, a crimson blush above it 

 fading into purple and the dark blue, about it 

 on each side a whitish transparent appearance, 

 or a lively greenish blue ; or perhaps the true 

 light prismatic blue ; and all these vary as the 

 sun gets lower beneath the horizon. 



A remarkable instance of the sudden change 

 in the colour of the clouds happened on Saturday, 

 the 2d of the present November, 1822. Being, 

 about four o'clock in the evening, near Croydon 

 in Surry, I observed a very beautiful Western 

 Sky, caused by the bright edge and dependent 

 fringes of a light bed of cloud being finely 

 gilded by the setting sun. Some detached 

 cirrocumuli also, which formed the exterior 

 boundaries of the aforesaid cloud, were like- 

 wise of a fine golden yellow, and the same 

 colour appeared in different clouds in other 

 parts of the sky, while the scudlike remains of 

 nimbus floated along in the West wind below. 

 In the course of about a quarter of an hour the 

 lofty gilded clouds all assumed a deep red 

 appearance, and the change was effected so 

 suddenly, that while looking at them I only 

 took my eyes off them for a minute, to stop 

 down the tobacco in a pipe that I was smoking, 



