102 SPRING. 



atmosphere is left without a cloud. But if it be 

 moonlight, there is a gummy haze around that lu- 

 minary, often with a breach or opening in that part of 

 it which is directed toward the point whence the new 

 current of air is coming, that is, in most parts of 

 Britain, towards the south. There are often auroras, 

 beams of light, and shooting meteors, though the con- 

 nexion of these with the weather be not so well made 

 out on account of the obscurity of their nature and 

 causes. Whether the sign may be general we pretend 

 not to say, but in elevated and woody tracts, we have 

 often found " the break of the storm" preceded by 

 little sheets of lightning in the lower atmosphere, 

 without any thunder or any cloud. Ignes fatui they 

 cannot be, for the gases of which those are composed 

 are quite shut up when there is snow upon the ground. 

 The beautiful azure reflection, in the bottoms of hoof 

 prints and other holes in the snow, has sometimes 

 been mentioned as one of the signs of thaw ; but it is 

 a sign after, a sign that the heat has been at work for 

 some time, and that the snow is, in consequence, soft- 

 ened in its mass, and become partially transparent. 

 This is not the only instance of the effect of a natural 

 event being put for a cause, of the sign that a change 

 has already come, being mistaken for a sign that it is 

 coming ; a species of mistake, against which those who 

 wish to inform themselves of the true causes, should 

 be constantly upon their guard. 



As the spring air gets the mastery, which is aided 

 by the condensation that takes place during the night, 

 it rises to a wind, the sound of which cannot be mis- 

 taken. The rigidity of trees, window frames, and 



