METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS* 
305 
AUROEA BOREALIS. 
November 1, 1787. The aurora made a particular appearance, 
forming itself into a broad, red, fiery belt, 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. — White. 
BLACK SPEING, 1771* 
Dr. Johnson says, that "in 1771 the season vras 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. — White, 
ON THE DAEK, 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 composed : 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 
The ponderous Mercury, from scale to scale 
Mounting, amidst the Torricellian tube.* 
While high in air, and pois'd upon his wings 
Unseen, the soft, enamour'd wood-lark mns 
Thro' all his maze of melody ; — the brake 
Loud with the black-bird's bolder note resounds. 
Sooth'd by the genial warmth, the cawing rook 
V Anticipates the spring, selects her mate. 
Haunts her tall nest-trees, and with sedulous care 
Repairs her wicker eyrie, tempest torn. 
The ploughman inly smiles to see upturn 
His mellow glebe, best pledge of future crop : 
With glee the gardener eyes his smoking beds : 
E'en pining sickness feels a short relief. 
The Barometer. 
X 
