238 VARIETIES OF WEATHER. CHAP. 8. 



reticular intersections of them, frequently at 

 right angles, which look like nets thrown over 

 the firmament ; forms of arrows ; stars with 

 long fibrous tails ; cyphon shaped curves ; and 

 lines with pendulous or with erect fringes, 

 ornament the Sky ; still different appearances 

 of stars and w r aves again appear, as these clouds 

 change to Sondercloud and to Wanecloud, 

 which modifications also seem to form and 

 subside spontaneously, in different planes,* and 

 with the varied and dissimilar appearances of 

 flocks at rest; fleeces of wool, or myriads of 

 small specks ; of long tapering columns, like 

 the tail of the great Manis, or of Mackerelback 

 Skies, or of striae, like the grains of wood. 

 Cumuli have not now their hemispherical 

 figure ; tuberculated, or fleecy ; elevated and 

 flimsy, or heavily sailing along like scud, they 

 appear operated on by an unusual condition of 

 their causes. All these circumstances, when 

 viewed as perpetually changing and appearing 



* Clouds are said to be in the same plane, when at equal 

 distances from the Earth ; more properly, it is a portion of a 

 sphere, whose diameter is greater than that of the sphere of 

 the Earth, by twice the distance from the Earth's surface to 

 the cloud. We speak familiarly of the plane surface of water, 

 which is actually spherical. 



