244 HUNTING DIRECTORY. 



Variations of tlie Barometer. 



dinary rising of the mercury, a sure prognostic of an 

 approaching change : we see it often continue to fall 

 after the rain is over ; and we may generally observe the 

 most settled fair, and the greatest rains, both happen 

 when it is in a moderate height. By the accounts I 

 have kept, the mercury is commonly at the highest 

 marks in dull cloudy weather ; yet does it often fall a 

 great deal faster before a few drops, or a dry mist, than 

 an impetuous rain ; and even continue to do so after a 

 hard rain is over. And what is more common than to 

 see it descend many days together, to the terror of the 

 husbandman, in hay or corn harvest ; when the conse- 

 quence, at last, is only a few drops weighty enough to 

 descend, though the air was in its utmost degree of 

 gravity, and the mercury at thirty-one inches ? The 

 vulgar solutions of these difficulties are insufficient and 

 puzzling, and vei'y inconsistent with avowed principles ; 

 and, in my humble opinion, there will never appear a 

 certain and satisfactory account of these perplexing 

 phenomena, till some sage naturalist shall give himself 

 the trouble of a more full and complete diary than has 

 yet been published ; where, together with the degrees 

 of the barometer, thermometer, and hygrometer, shall 

 be taken in (in distinct columns) the time of the year, 

 the length of the days, the age of the moon, the situation 

 of the wind, with its degrees of roughness ; the colours 

 of the clouds at sun rising and setting ; the manner of 

 flying, chattering, or flocking of birds, and divers other 

 concurring tokens and symptoms, which may be of great 

 use in conjunction with the said instruments, to settle 

 and confirm our prognostications. In the mean time it 



