A NEW VIEW OF THE WEATHER QUESTION. 289 



away off in the distant horizon. This, in order possibly to give a name even 

 though the cause was not known, is called "heat-lightning." On the basis of 

 these remarks, and I trust that they are not far out of the way, though we are 

 still in the dark as to many facts, there does not seem as though there could be 

 any such thing as is implied by this name, but rather that it is a bona fide light- 

 ning from some center of lenv — perhaps a local low or some regular passing centre 

 of low, some twenty miles or more away. 



LXXXVIII. There is also a common expression in regard to thunder, that 

 " Thunder in the morning, sailors take warning; Thunder at night, sailors de- 

 light," as though it were a law that it was worse to have thunder in the morning 

 than in the evening, etc. In the first place it depends upon which direction the 

 thunder proceeds from ; if to the East of us it is evident that the storm center or 

 low has passed our locality ; if to the North that it is passing ; if to the South, that 

 it is working its way up towards us ; and if to the West, that we may expect it 

 to be or come quite near us. Secondly, there may not be any great " delight" in 

 hearing thunder at night, as in the other case, it all depends on the direction 

 from which it comes, immediately about us, to the North, East, South or West 

 of us. Thunder is more apt to occur in the evening on account of the develop- 

 ment of the heat of the day (see section XXXVIII on electricity) ; where there is 

 thunder in the morning it shows great heat and perhaps the development of a 

 low barometer, and therefore indication of a severe storm. These remarks on 

 thunder and lightning may also, in a general way, apply to the lines "a rainbow 

 in the morning," etc. The principle is the same. 



LXXXIX. Among other common notions in this department of the weather 

 is the idea that at certain times, mostly morning and evening, when a few heavy 

 broken clouds are massed together and the sunlight is shining through such open- 

 ings as there may be here and there among them, that the sun is drawing water. 

 This notion evidently grew out of the desire to account for a certain natural phe- 

 nomena after a supposed reasonable manner ; but the knowledge of the present 

 will not si stain any such fanciful idea as this implies. In the first place the sun 

 does not "draw" water, at least in the sense we commonly use this word. It 

 evaporates the water and combines it with air, and thereby forms clouds. Secondly, 

 this process is going on all the while, at least when there is sufficient heat. 

 Thirdly, this phenomena called the "sun drawing water," is simply the rays of 

 the sun shining through an opening, and we have the same effect whether the 

 opening be in a cloud or in a wall. The denser the cloud immediately under 

 the sun and the clearer the sky elsewhere, the stronger this effect will be. 



In this paper it has been the aim of the writer, as may be readily seen, to 

 bring together all the points in relation to the weather that he could think of, and 

 in order to facilitate memory and to draw special attention to these points so that 

 they would not be lost in the mass, he adopted the plan of numbering each item 

 as it presented itself in as much order as possible, that one point might, as near as 

 possible, suggest the other. He does not claim that he has discovered all, or that 

 all his deductions are right. He has simply endeavored to present the subject 



