CLOUDS. 253 



fectly clear, and the atmosphere purely transparent, the 

 snow that covers the roofs of the houses, and the tops 

 of the hills, is more or less gilded and crimsoned by the 

 rays of the declining sun. 



The forms of clouds are not less beautiful or expres- 

 sive than their colors. While their outlines are suffi- 

 ciently indefinite for picturesque effects, they often 

 assume a great uniformity in their aggregations. The 

 frostwork upon the window panes, on cold winter 

 mornings, exhibits no greater variety of figures than that 

 assumed by the clouds in their distribution over the 

 heavens. Beginning in the form of vapor that rolls its 

 fleecy masses slowly over the plain, resembling, at a 

 distance, sometimes a smooth sheet of water, and at 

 other times a drifted snow bank, the cloud divides itself 

 as it ascends, into heaps of globular figures, that reflect 

 the sunlight from a thousand silvery domes. These, 

 after gradually dissolving, reappear in a host of finely 

 mottled images, resembling the scales of a fish, then 

 marshal themselves into undulating rows like the waves 

 of the sea, and are lastly metamorphosed into a thin 

 gauzy fabric, like crumpled muslin, or in a long drapery 

 of hair-like fringe overspreading the highest regions of 

 the atmosphere. 



These different forms of cloud are elevated according 

 to the fineness of their texture and organization, the 

 finer and more complicated fabrics occupying the space 

 above the next in degree. We often observe three 

 layers of clouds separated by sufficient space to receive 

 all the different hues of sunset at the same moment. 

 While the feather clouds, that occupy the greatest ele- 

 vation, are burnished with a dazzling radiance, the 

 middle layers of dappled cloud will be tipt with crim- 

 son, while the violet and indigo hues prevail in the 

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