iSgy.] "Weather." 5^ 



alarm-spreading prognostications. The scientist, with his able 

 army of assistants spread over a continent, dares scarcely pre- 

 dict 48 hours in advance, yet the charlatan, scorning observa- 

 tions, with one bound leaps over weeks and even months and 

 there plants his weather signal. Let us turn for a moment to 

 some of the superstitions and fallacies regarding weather. As 

 far back as 1508, not long after the invention of printing, a book 

 was published in Germany under the title of the " Bauern 

 Practik " or " Husbandsman's Practice," as its translation was 

 known in England. It taught the farmer, the sailor, all, indeed, 

 who were interested in the weather what would be its character, 

 not only for the coming year, but in all future years. Christmas 

 is the chief radiant point upon which the prognostications de- 

 pend. Plenty, peace, war, drought, rain, honey, wine, corn, 

 follow according as Christmas is fine or cloudy, and if the sun 

 rises obscured or if he sets obscured, or if Christmas falls on a 

 Sunday or some other day of the week and so on. In a less 

 degree the 12 days following Christmas, i.e., to Epiphany, had a 

 mystic influence on future weather and affairs of life. 



There are said to be forty weather saints, among the most 

 prominent of whom is undoubtedly St. Swithin, whose day is 

 July 15th, and the superstition is that if it should rain on that 

 day it will rain for forty days after. In order to see this belief 

 fulfilled I would suggest migration to southeastern Alaska, where 

 forty, fifty or sixty days' rain can be had on short notice. 



Of the heavenly bodies for forecasting the weather the 

 moon has ever held pre-eminently first place not only by the 

 people but by the self constituted prophets, who, under the pro- 

 tecting shield of astronomy, profess to have framed infallible 

 rules for the weather as judged from the ever varying position 

 of the sun, moon and planets. 



By careful examination of thousands of accurate barometric 

 observations distributed over the globe we find that whatever 



