"FOLK-LORE" ITS VALUE. 1.95 



think that physicists have been wrong in treating with 

 contempt those sayings or proverbs which refer to natu- 

 ral phenomena. It would, no doubt, be a great mistake 

 to receive them blindly, but it is no less so to reject 

 them without examination. Guided by those principles, 

 I have sometimes found important truths where others 

 had seen merely groundless and obstinate prejudices." 



It was in this spirit of rational deference to the ex- 

 perience of the unlearned that the Marquess of Tweed- 

 dale declared to the Meteorological Society that certain 

 shepherds, without scientific apparatus, and simply by 

 watching the aspect of the sky and the atmosphere, had 

 been able to foretell the extraordinary snow-storm of 

 1861 in sufficient time to save themselves and their 

 flocks from its disastrous effects. " He thought these 

 natural observations ought to attract a much greater 

 amount of attention than they had yet received ; and as 

 Dr Arthur Mitchell and himself were at present engaged 

 in collecting such observations for the purpose of being 

 classified and systematised, he hoped that they would 

 receive every possible assistance from their country 

 friends in their inquiries." 



Very possibly the determination of the Society to 

 enter upon the investigation of this very curious and 

 interesting department of knowledge may excite more 

 popular notice than has been excited by any of the im- 

 portant inquiries which it has been prosecuting. We 

 hope that it will, and that the result will be an acces- 

 sion of reliable information to the public, and of much- 

 needed funds to the Society. And should this hope be 

 realised, the public and the Society will have equal 

 reason to be grateful to the Marquess of Tweeddale for 

 his valuable suggestion, and for his liberality in offering 

 a prize of twenty guineas for the best scientific expla- 

 nation of the prognostics collected by Dr Mitchell. 



If few of our readers be sufficiently learned to com- 

 pete for the prize, we hope that many of them will, for 

 their own instruction, and as a contribution to the facts 



