METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS. 305 



AURORA BOREALIS. 



November 1, 1787. The N". aurora made a particular appearance, 

 forming itself into a broad, red, fiery belt, which extended from 

 E. to W. across the welkin : but the moon rising at about ten o'clock, 

 in unclouded majesty, in the E. put an end to this grand, but awful 

 meteorous phenomenon. WHITE. 



BLACK SPRING, 1771. 



Dr. Johnson says, that " in 1771 the season was so severe in the 

 island of Sky, that it is remembered by the name of the ' black spring.' 

 The snow, which seldom lies at all, covered the ground for eight weeks, 

 many cattle died, and those that survived were so emaciated that they 

 did not require the male at the usual season." The case was just 

 the same with us here in the south ; never were so many barren cows 

 known as in the spring following that dreadful period. Whole dairies 

 missed being in calf together. 



At the end of March the face of the earth was naked to a surprising 

 degree. Wheat hardly to be seen, and no signs of any grass ; turnips 

 all gone, and sheep in a starving way. All provisions rising in price. 

 Farmers cannot sow for want of rain. WHITE. 



ON THE DARK, STILL, DRY, WARM WEATHER, 



OCCASIONALLY HAPPENING IN THE WINTER MONTHS. 



TH' imprison'd winds slumber within their caves 

 Fast bound : the fickle vane, emblem of change, 

 Wavers no more, long- settling to a point. 



All nature nodding seems composed : thick steams 

 From land, from flood up-drawn, dimming the day, 

 ' ' Like a dark ceiling stand : " slow thro' the air 

 Gossamer floats, or stretch'd from blade to blade 

 The wavy net-work whitens all the field. 



Push'd by the weightier atmosphere, up springs 

 The ponderous Mercury, from scale to scale 

 Mounting, amidst the Torricellian tube.* 



While high in air, and pois'd upon his wings 

 Unseen, the soft, enamour'd wood-lark runs 

 Thro' all his maze of melody ; the brake 

 Loud with the black-bird's bolder note resounds. 



Sooth 'd by the genial warmth, the cawing rook 

 Anticipates the spring, selects her mate, 

 Haunts her tall nest-trees, and with sedulous care 

 Repairs her wicker eyrie, tempest torn. 



The ploughman inly smiles to see upturn 

 His mellow glebe, best pledge of future crop : 

 With glee the gardener eyes his smoking beds : 

 E'en pining sickness feels a short relief. 



The Barometer. 



