PROGNOSTICS CONTINUED. 173 



and greedy; snails, frogs, and toads, appear 

 disturbed and uneasy. Fishes are sullen and 

 znade qualmish by the water, now more turbid 

 than before. Birds of all sorts are in action : 

 crows are most earnest after their prey, as are 

 also swallows and other small birds, and there- 

 fore they fall lower, and fly nearer to the earth 

 in search of insects and such other things as 

 they feed upon. When the mountains of the 

 north begin to be capped with fogs, the moor- 

 cocks and other birds quit them, fly offin flocks, 

 and betake themselves to the lower lands for 

 the time. Swine discover great uneasiness ; as 

 do likewise sheep, cows, and oxen, appearing 

 more solicitous and eager in pasture than usual. 

 Even mankind themselves are not exempt from 

 some sense of a change in their bodies. 



PROGNOSTICS CONTINUED. 



1. " A dark, thick, sky, lasting for some time 

 without either sun or rain, always become first 

 fair, then foul," i.e. changes to a fair, clear 

 sky, before it turns to rain. This the Rev. Mr. 

 Clarke, who kept a register of the weather for 

 thirty years, since put into Mr. Derham's hands, 

 by his grandson, the learned Dr. Samuel Clarke : 

 t his, he says, he scarce ever knew to fail ; at 

 least when the wind was in any of the easterly 

 points : but Mr, Derham has observed the rule 

 to hold good, be the wind where it will. And 

 the cause is obvious : The atmosphere is re- 

 plete with vapours, which, though sufficient 

 to reflect and intercept the sun's rays from us, 

 yet want density to descend ; and while the va- 

 pours continue in the same state, the weather 

 will do so to. 



