eee 
> : 
On the Popular Weather Prognostics of Scotland. 225 
coming from Kincraig, or from up the Firth, or in other words 
from the west, the wind is expected to fall. 
(2.) At Roseneath, when the tide-stream at the ferry flows 
gently, yet resounds like a cataract, though the sky be starry and 
_ cloudless, rain may be looked for in the morning. 
(3.) When the people of Monzie hear the sound of the water- 
falls of Shaggie, or the roar of the distant Turret clearly and 
loudly, a storm is expected; but if the sound seems to recede from 
the ear till it is lost in the distance, and if the weather be thick, 
a change to fair may be looked for speedily. 
(4.) In Fortingall, if in calm weather the sound of the rapids 
on the Lyon is distinctly heard, and if the sound descends with 
the stream, rainy weather is at hand; but if the sound goes up the 
stream, and dies away in the distance, it is an omen of continued 
_ dry weather, or of a clearing up if previously thick. 
Note.—The course of the Turret and Lyon is from west to 
east, ‘This note refers to the two preceding prognostics. 
(5.) Along the Dornoch coast, when the sound of the sea is 
distinctly heard as if breaking on the sandbank called the Guz- 
zen Briggs, at the mouth of the Firth of Dornoch, it forebodes 
a storm, which will probably be from the east or north-east. 
When this is reckoned on as a prognostic, it is said “‘ that the 
weather must be calm, and the sea with nothing more than a 
swell on,” 
(6.) In winter, when the sound of the breakers on the shore 1s 
unusually distinct, frost is indicated. ‘This is very generally be- 
lieved in. 
(7.) If the noise of a steamer or a railway train is heard at a 
great distance, bad weather is predicted. 
VII. Underground Prognostics. 
(1.) In the collieries about Dysart, and in those of other dis- 
tricts in Scotland, it is thought by the miners that before a storm 
of wind, a sound not unlike that of a bagpipe, or the buzz of a 
bee, comes from the mineral, and that previous to a fall of rain 
the sound is more subdued. 
(2.) Before wind and rain, it is also said, that the black damp, 
extinguishing the lights, is observed at the bottom of ironstone 
pits, and through the waste. 
(3.) In Midlothian, the miners think that approaching changes 
of the weather are preceded by an increased flow of water, and 
the issue of gases and foul air from the crevices; and when very 
bad weather is at hand, these last escape with a characteristic 
sound, like the buzz of insects. 
