150 Prognostics of the Weather. 



There is commonly either a strong dew, or a mist, over 

 the ground, between a red evening and a grey morning ; 

 but if a red morning succeeds there is no dew. 



It is a bad symptom when a lowering redness is spread 

 ' too far upwards from the horizon, either in the morning or 

 in the evening ; it is succeeded either by rain or wind, and 

 frequently by both. 



When such fiery redness, together with a raggedness of 

 the clouds, extends towards the zenith in an evening, the 

 wind will be high from the west or south-west, attended 

 with rain, sometimes with a flood. Before the dreadful 

 hurricane of 1780, at Barbadoes, and the other West- 

 Indian Islands, a redness like fire was observed all over 

 the sky. 



When the sky, in a rainy season, is tinged with a sea- 

 green colour, near the horizon, when it ought to be blue, 

 the rain will continue and increase ; if it is of a deep dead 

 blue, it is abundantly loaded with vapours, and the weather 

 will be showery. 



Signs from the Sun, Moon, and Stars. 



WHEN there is a haziness aloft in the air, so that the sun's 

 light fades by degrees, and his orb looks whitish, and ill- 

 defined, it is one of the most certain signs of rain. 



If the moon and stars grow dim in the night, with the like 

 haziness in the air, and a ring or halo appears round the 

 moon, rain will be the consequence. 



If the rays of the sun, breaking through the clouds, are 

 visible in the air, and appear like those horns of irradiation 

 which painters usually place upon the head of Moses, the 

 air is sensibly filled with vapours, which reflect the rays to 

 the sight ; and those vapours will soon produce rain. 



If the sun appears white at his setting, or shorn of his 

 rays, or goes down into a bank of clouds which lie in the 

 horizon, all these are signs of approaching or continuing 

 bad weather. 



If the moon looks pale and dim, we are to expect rain ; 



