30 THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 



those causes whicli have not passed under the power of thought. — 

 E}nerson. So, perhaps, to be forewarned is to be forearmed, and it 

 is often seen to be prudent to take in sail ere you are caught and 

 cuffed by the gale. In suppoit of the theory that shocks and bumps 

 are not the usual order of nature, see how gently changes displace 

 and glide into each other. 



"Thief-like step of liberal hours, 

 Thawing snow drift into flowers." 



The passing winter seems to have been characterized by frequent 

 and by very abrupt changes, some of which have formed interesting 

 themes for conmient and discussion, one side maintaining that 

 nature works by gradual and recognizable methods, rather than by 

 shocks, cataclysms or violence. 



Yet the immense local snowfall of last December, succeeding to 

 mild temperature, has hardly been previously experienced by the 

 present generation, and the immense snow drifts had more the 

 appearance of a three months' winter accumulation than of the fan- 

 tastic work of one or two days and nights. This was a surprise to all. 



"At the conjuror's," it has been printed, "we detect the hair 

 by which he moves his puppet, but we have no eyes sharp enough 

 to descry the thread that ties cause and effect." 



Yet one event exudes from, or grows from or on the same stem 

 as another event, and we read in the scientific papers that the light- 

 house keepers on the Eastern Atlantic coast of the United States 

 affirm that those violent and destructive atmospheric commotions 

 known as northeasterly hurricanes invariably give ample and unmis- 

 takable notice of their coming, even to an unscientific observer, very 

 many hours previous to their onset, and that no one studious of his 

 own safety and interest need be taken by surprise by those violent 

 agitations. 



Cloudforms frequently denote what is "brewing" in the atmos- 

 phere that surrounds us. The big snowfall of the 4th December last 

 was ushered or heralded some evenings previous to its advent by a 

 dense "anvil-edged" cloud, that seemed to stretch clear across the 

 southern horizon, at or just after sunsetting two or three evenings 

 before the storm eventuated. Traditions of early Canadian settlers 

 always associated the above mentioned appearance as a presage of 



