LUNAR INFLUENCES. 337 



Hence the number of fine days in the twenty days folio-wing the 

 Saturday full nioon=2"21 stormy ; and similarly after the new= 

 2-18 stormy. 



From this statement it appears that the results obtained, so far as 

 Canada is concerned, are totally at variance with those arrived at by 

 Dr. Forester, and also those popular opinions above alluded to 

 embodied in proverbs current in the British Isles and elsewhere. 

 Nor does this afibrd more than an apparent contradiction. What 

 may be found true in the experience of the North Sea pilot or 

 fisherman, contending day after day with hail, rain, fog, and stormy 

 winds, in a climate, where, according to Havard, rain falls more or 

 less every other day, can surely find no place in one like the Canadian, 

 so opposite in all its features. Twenty wet and windy days after a 

 Saturday moon is a phenomena not to be found in a climate where, 

 for nearly five months in the year, little or no rain is met with, and 

 where, in the summer months, an equal rainfall is so difierently 

 distributed. So far from the Saturday moons having anything 

 formidable, they rather seem to be the harbingers of fine and serene 

 weather. If we further examine the annexed table we shall find 

 that in the years '35, '47, '52, '54, '58, '62, '64, '68, '69, there 

 were three. Saturday full moons and two Saturday new moons in the 

 the year. And also that in the years 1834, '48, '56, '61, '65, there 

 there were thi-ee Saturday new moons and two Saturday full. In 

 the years '49, '53, '63, '70, there were no Saturday full moons, and 

 in '33, 36, no Saturday new moons ; but no year occurs in which 

 both are found wanting. It is observable that the Saturday full 

 moons in some degree seem to predominate. 



Akin to the idea of a Saturday moon, of which the new, according 

 to the popular notion, seems the most formidable, is that of the 

 moon '■'■ on her back." Respecting which Jack's well-known adage 

 will occur to our memories : — 



" When the moon is on her back, 

 If near the shore, look out and tack." 



Intimating that such an appearance is the precursor of a storm. In 

 this opinion he is supported by the Red Indian of this country, 

 who, it is said, is wont to remark that when you can hang a kettle 

 on the moon's horn, it presages bad weather. To recovint such 

 sayings would be tedious and unprofitable, for their name is legion. 



