OBSERVATIONS. 365 



because winds disperse it, and copious dews dilute it, and 

 prevent its ill effects. It falls mostly in hazy warm 

 weather. 



MORNING CLOUDS. 



AFTER a bright night and vast dew, the sky usually becomes 

 cloudy by eleven or twelve o'clock in the forenoon, and 

 clear again towards the decline of the day. The reason 

 seems to be, that the dew, drawn up by evaporation, occa- 

 sions the clouds ; which, towards evening, being no longer 

 rendered buoyant by the warmth of the sun, melt away, 

 and fall down again in dews. If clouds are watched in a 

 still warm evening, they will be seen to melt away, and 

 disappear. 



DRIPPING WEATHER AFTER DROUGHT. 



No one that has not attended to such matters, and taken 

 down remarks, can be aware how much ten days' dripping 

 weather will influence the growth of grass or corn after a 

 severe dry season. This present summer, 1776, yielded a 

 remarkable instance; for till the 30th of May the fields 

 were burnt up and naked, and the barley not half out of the 

 ground ; but now, June 10, there is an agreeable prospect 

 of plenty. 



AURORA BOREALIS. 



NOVEMBER 1, 1787. The Northern Aurora made a par- 

 ticular 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. 



BLACK SPRING, 1771. 



DR. JOHNSON says, that " in 1771 the season was so severe 

 in the island of Skye, that it is remembered by the name of 

 the Black Spring. The snow, which seldom lies at all, 

 covered the ground fc^ eight weeks, many cattle died, and 

 those that survived we/e so emaciated that they did not 



