232 On the Popular Weather Prognostics of Scotland. 
as the active traveller,—to the sportsman who pursues his game, as well 
as the industrious husbandman, who constantly follows his labour, —in 
short, to every man in every situation in some degree or other, is so very 
clear and intelligible, that it would be a mere waste of words, and a 
very idle display of rhetoric, to attempt the making it clearer. Every 
man living would be glad to forsee the alterations of the weather if he 
could ; and, consequently, to most people, if not to all, these observa- 
tions, grounded on no less than forty years’ experience, cannot but be 
acceptable.” 
I. Sun.—(1.) If the sun rise red and fiery—Wind and rain. (2.) 
If cloudy, and it soon decrease—Certain fair weather. 
II, Moon.—(1.) Horns of the moon obscure—Rain. (2.) When the 
moon is red— Wind. (3.) On the fourth day of the new moon, if bright, 
with sharp horns—No winds nor rain till the month be finished. 
II. Srars.—(1.) When stars shoot precipitant through the sky— 
Approaching wind. 
IV. Crovps.—(1.) Clouds small and round, like a dapple grey with 
a north wind—/air weather for two or three days. (2.) Large like 
rocks—(reat showers. (8.) If small clouds increase—Much rain. (4.) 
If large clouds decrease—fair weather. (5.) Clouds in summer or 
harvest, when the wind has been south two or three days, and it grows 
very hot, and you see clouds rise with great white tops like towers, as if 
one were upon the top of another, and joined together with black on the 
nether side—There will be thunder and rain suddenly. (6.) If two 
such clouds arise, one on either hand—ZJ¢t zs time to make haste to 
shelter. (7.) If you see a cloud rise against the wind or side wind, 
when that cloud comes up to you, the wind will blow the same way that 
the cloud came. And the same rule holds of a clear place, when all the 
sky is equally thick, except one clear edge. 
V. Mists.—(1.) If mists rise in low ground and soon vanish—/air 
weather. (2.) If they rise to the hill tops—Lain im a day or two. 
(3.) A general mist before the sun rises, near the full moon—/azr 
weather. (4.) If in the new moon—Lain in the old. (5.) If in the 
old—fain in the new. 
VI. Winps.—(1.) Observe that in eight years’ time there is as much 
south-west wind as north-east, and consequently as many wet years as 
dry. (2.) When the wind turns to north-east, and it continues two 
days without rain, and does not turn south the third day, nor rain the 
third day, it is likely to continue north-east for eight or nine days—all 
fair ; and then to come to the south again. (3.) If it turn again out of 
the south to the north-east with rain, and continue in the north east two 
days without rain, and neither turns south nor rains the third day-—ZI¢ 
zs likely to continue north-east for two or three months, The wind will 
finish these turns in three weeks. (4.) South-west winds. After a 
north wind, for the most part two months or more, and then coming 
south—There are usually three or four fair days at first, and then on — 
the fourth or fifth day comes rain, or else the wind turns north again, | 
