THEIR PRACTICAL VALUE. 197 



ant, as Dr Mitchell truly observes : " Faith in such 

 signs determines in no small degree the actions of shep- 

 herds, farmers, seamen, and others, by whom they are 

 trusted in such a manner as to lead either to gain or 

 loss. It is this consideration which gives to the study of 

 them a practical value. They either mislead and cause 

 loss of time and property, or they are useful and ready 

 guides to be consulted and obeyed with profit. Their 

 actual influence on conduct for good or evil makes it 

 clearly desirable that their trustworthiness should be 

 carefully tested." 



It can hardly be doubted that there are natural indi- 

 cations which, when long and accurately observed, give 

 certain premonition of approaching atmospheric changes. 

 No classes of men are so much interested in this kind 

 of knowledge as farmers, sailors, and shepherds, and 

 none have more ample means of observation. Whether 

 farmers are generally as observant of weather pheno- 

 mena as their interest should prompt them to be, may 

 be questioned, considering how few of them are members 

 of the Meteorological Society. Sailors, for their own 

 safety shepherds, for that of their charge are notori- 

 ously weather-wise. " I remember," writes a friend of 

 ours, " of being in company with the celebrated Sir 

 Sidney Smith, when he visited Perthshire, many years 

 ago. It was in autumn, and the grain was ripe in the 

 fields, but the weather was so unfavourable that the 

 labours of the harvest were at a stand. I observed to 

 him that nobody understood the weather so well as 

 sailors and shepherds, and I hoped he could give us 

 some reason to expect a change. ' Oh !' said he, with 

 the frankness characteristic of himself and his profes- 

 sion, 1 1 can do nothing among your mountains ; but 

 set me afloat in a known sea, with a barometer before 

 me, and I will give you a rough guess of what you may 

 expect.' And he proceeded to say, that whenever he 

 went to a new station, the first thing he did was to call 

 around him all the oldest fishermen, and mark down all 



