CHAP. 2. 16. COLOURS OF CLOUDS. 89 



and when I looked up at them again, the colour 

 was totally changed. Now what renders this 

 phenomenon remarkable, is that it happened 

 just about the period of the Vapour Point. The 

 descending sun had scarcely had time to make 

 any great difference in the angle of reflection, 

 and it seemed, therefore, that some sudden 

 change produced by the first falling Dew was 

 the cause of this simultaneous change of colour 

 in all the clouds then visible. On the morning 

 of Friday, the 22d of November, I observed the 

 counterpart of this phenomenon, namely the 

 sudden change of a bed of Wanecloud, the sky 

 itself looking very green at the time, from a 

 beautiful red at 10 minutes past 7 o'clock, to a 

 bright golden yellow at 20 minutes past 7- 

 This change seemed effected by the getting 

 higher of the sun. Wind and Rain followed. 



These and numerous other beautiful appear- 

 ances of diverging streaks, bars, and spots, may 

 often be seen with a horizontal sun ; we notice 

 them chiefly in an evening, because we seldom 

 rise soon enough in the morning ; but they may 

 be observed to display nearly the same degree of 

 beauty, though with some variety of appearance, 

 when they usher forth the gay Aurora, rising 

 from the bed of the sable Tithonus, as when they 



