WEATHER. 



WEATHER. 



might be enabled to determine the directions, 

 breadth, and bo.unds of the winds, and of the 

 weather they bring with them; with the cor- 

 respondence between the weather of divers 

 places, and the difference between one sort and 

 another at the same place; and thus, in time, 

 learn to foretell many great emergencies ; as 

 extraordinary hea.ts, rains, frosts, droughts, &c. 

 But hitherto very few, and only partial, regis- 

 ters or accounts of the weather have been kept. 

 The Meteorological Society of Great Britain, 

 and the British Association for the Advance-, 

 ment of Science, have latterly done much to- 

 wards increasing our stock of meteoric know- 

 ledge, and have collected an immense body of 

 facts and registers, from which many useful 

 inferences have been drawn, and some impor- 

 tant theories deduced. The general conclu- 

 sions that have been drawn from the experi- 

 ments that have been made on this subject are 

 that barometers generally rise and fall toge- 

 ther, even at very distant places, and a conse- 

 quent conformity and similarity of weather; 

 but this is the more uniformly so, as the places 

 are nearer together, as might be expected; 

 that the variations of the barometer are greater 

 as the places are nearer to the pole : thus, for 

 instance, the mercury at London has a greater 

 range by 2 or 3 lines than at Paris ; and at 

 Paris, a greater than at Zurich; and at some 

 places near the equator there is scarcely any 

 variation at all; that the rain in' Switzerland 

 and Italy is much greater in quantity for the 

 whole year than in Essex; and yet the rains 

 are more frequent, or there are more rainy 

 days, in Essex than at either of these places ; 

 that cold contributes greatly to rain, apparently 

 by condensing the suspended vapours, and so 

 leading to their precipitation ; thus, very cold 

 months or seasons are commonly followed im- 

 mediately by very rainy ones, and cold sum- 

 mers are always wet ones. High ridges of 

 mountains, and the snows with which they are 

 covered, not only affect the neighbouring places, 

 but even distant countries often partake of 

 their effects. 



The science of meteorology, or the study of 

 the changing phenomena of the atmosphere, 

 &c., has from the earliest periods occupied a 

 greater or less share of attention from the tiller 

 of the soil, the gardener, and those engaged in 

 the pasturage of animals. To no individual 

 (the mariner, perhaps, excepted) is a fore- 

 knowledge of the probable future state of the 

 weather of more consequence and importance 

 than the agriculturist; for on. this must mainly 

 depend the progress and success of his field 

 operations, his seedtime and -his harvest, and 

 the greater or -less return afforded by his crops. 



It may not comport with the dignity of the 

 man of science, or the elevated learning of the 

 erudite philosopher, to have his eyes and ears 

 open to the plain and simple rules and guides 

 which nature lays out before him. Perhaps he 

 has little of leisure to note the every-day phe- 

 nomena which the atmosphere and all animate 

 and inanimate nature hold up to observation, 

 as in a glass, where all who use their eyes may 

 read as they run. The companions of "his 

 study are the more costly and elaborately pre- 



pared philosophical instruments: how much, 

 however, might their value be enhanced by a 

 careful and comparative observation of the 

 "skyey influences," as the poet terms them"? 

 But to these closet companions, the husband- 

 man, the shepherd, the traveller, the fisherman, 

 and the'inariner have rarely access, while en- 

 gaged in the busy out-of-door occupations of 

 their several avocations. Those who till the 

 land, or who go down to the sea in ships, of 

 all others, are they who become, by habits of 

 observation and reflection, most conversant 

 with the signs and. changes of the heavens; 

 the sun, the moon, and the stars are to them 

 monitors and instructors, whose warning voices 

 meet a prompt and ready response. The ripple 

 of the wave, the curl of the smoke, the pass- 

 ing shadow of the cloud, the budding of the 

 tree, the arrival and departure of the migratory 

 birds, the frolicsome gambols of animals, every 

 leaf that 'quivers in the sunbeam, every plant 

 that drinks the dew of heaven, the myriads of 

 insects, and creeping things innumerable, that 

 inhabit each leaf and opening flower, are all 

 fraught with instruction and information to the 

 experienced and watchful observer. 



Around, above, beneath, all animate and in- 

 animate creation, animals, vegetables, the ele- 

 ments, a thousand objects in a thousand direc- 

 tions, in every recurring season, furnish their 

 quota of information towards our stock of mete- 

 oric knowledge, and foretell the approaching va- 

 riations of atmospheric phenomena. The ex- 

 perienced fisherman and the watchful and wary 

 mariner will predict the coming storm, by the 

 tiny cloud and other unerring criteria which 

 frequent and attentive observance of the sky 

 has rendered familar, long before its approach 

 is visible to the ken of the ordinary and inat- 

 tentive observer. 



It has been well remarked, that " the shep- 

 herd, whose sole business it is to observe what 

 has a reference to the flock under his care, 

 who spends all his days and many of his nights 

 in the open air, under the wide-spread canopy 

 of heaven, is obliged to take particular notice 

 of the alterations of the weather; and when 

 he cares to take a pleasure in making such ob- 

 servations, it is amazing how much progress 

 he makes in them, and to how great a certainty 

 he arrives at last, by mere dint of comparing 

 signs and events, and connecting one observa- 

 tion with another. Every thing in time be- 

 comes to him a weather-gauge : the sun, the 

 moon, the stars, the clouds, the winds, the 

 mists, the trees, the flowers, the herbs, and 

 almost every insect, animal, and reptile with 

 which he is acquainted all these become, to 

 such a person, instruments of real know- 

 ledge." 



To the farmer, a careful study of the wea- 

 ther, and of the inferences to be drawn from 

 precedent, and from natural and artificial data, 

 come fraught with numerous and important 

 considerations. Like the angler, the husband- 

 man " must observe the wind, sun, and clouds 

 by day; the moon, stars, and wanes of the air 

 by night." Few are so entirely dependent on 

 the caprice of the weather, for the commonest 

 routine operations of the farm, as the agricul- 



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