BLACK SPRING. 
305 
again towards the decline of the day The reason seems to be, 
that the dew, drawn up by evaporation, occasions the clouds ; 
which, towards evening, being no longer rendered buoyant by 
the warmth of the sun, melt away, and fall down again in dews.* 
If clouds are watched in a still warm evening, they will be seen 
to melt away, and disappear. 
DRIPPING WEATHER AFTER DROUGHT. 
No one that has not attended to such matters, and taken down 
remarks, can be aware how much ten days' dripping weather will 
influence the growth of grass or corn after a severe dry season. 
This present summer, 1776, yielded a remarkable instance; for 
till the 30th of May the fields were burnt up and naked, and the 
barley not half out of the ground ; but now, June 10, there is an 
agreeable prospect of plenty. 
AURORA BOREALIS. 
November 1, 1787. The N. aurora made a particular appear- 
ance, 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. 
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 follow- 
ing that dreadful period. Whole dairies missed being in calf 
together. 
At the end of March the face of the earth was naked to a sur- 
prising degree. Wheat hardly to be seen, and no signs of any 
grass ; turnips all gone, and sheep in a starving way. All pro- 
visions rising in price. Farmers cannot sow for want of rain. 
* The true theory of dew is that it rises from the ground, not falls, as is the vulgar opinion. 
Much moisture is at all times continually ascending from the earth, which passes off during the 
day in invisible vapour, but is condensed by the chills of night, and appears as dew. — Ed. 
X 
