30 ETON NATUEE-STUDY 



clouds " and the " Noah's Ark " will probably have the greatest 

 attraction for them, not to mention " mare's tails" and " mackerel 

 skies." In the next stage the main kinds of clouds and their sig- 

 nificance should be more definitely distinguished. Masses of cloud 

 (cumulus), streaks (stratus), flecks and wisps (cirrus), their varieties 

 and intermediate forms, will be recognised. The heavy packs with 



From a photograph by Commander D. Wilson Barker (by kind permission). 



FIGURE 36. Stratus pointing to fine weather. 



sharp edges which denote rain, the " saw cloud" or dark and jagged 

 " drought cloud " (strato-cumulus) which forecasts thunder, the cirro- 

 cumulus indicative of change, and the soft edged, slow moving clouds 

 denoting the continuance of fine weather, all form part of a most 

 interesting branch of nature-study. 



It should be remembered that, as Mr Samuel Barber has pointed 

 out,* circumstances very much alter cases in connection with 

 cloud forecasts, and he gives a list of conditions as to time of day, 



* " The Cloud World " by Samuel Barber. Elliot Stock, 1903. Price 7s. 6d. 



