448 METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS 



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 Sky, that it is remembered by the 

 name of the black spring. The snow, which seldom lies 

 at all, covered the ground for eight weeks, many cattle 

 died, and those that survived were so emaciated that they 

 did not require the male at the usual season." The case 

 was just the same with us here in the south ; never were 

 so many barren cows known as in the spring following 

 that dreadful period. Whole dairies missed being in calf 

 together. 



At the end of March the face of the earth was naked to 

 a surprising degree. Wheat hardly to be seen, and no 

 signs of any grass ; turnips all gone, and sheep in a 

 starving way. All provisions rising in price. Farmers 

 cannot sow for want of rain. 



ON THE DARK, STILL, DRY WARM WEATHER, 

 OCCASIONALLY HAPPENING IN THE WINTER MONTHS. 



Th' imprison'd winds slumber within their caves 

 Fast bound : the fickle vane, emblem of change, 

 Wavers no more, long-settling to a point. 



All nature nodding seems compos'd ; thick steams 

 From land, from flood up-drawn, dimming the day, 

 "Like a dark ceiling stand " ; slow thro' the air 

 Gossamer floats, or stretch'd from blade to blade 

 The wavy net-work whitens all the field. 



Push'd by the weightier atmosphere, up springs 



