AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
117 
Against heavy rain, every cloud rises larger than the 
former, and all of them appear in an increasing state; — 
this is perhaps most remarkable on the approach of a 
thunder-storm; after the vapours have been copiously ele- 
vated, suspended in the sky by the heat, and are highly 
charged with the electrical fluid, small pieces of flying 
clouds augment and assemble together, until, in a short 
time, they cover the sky: as this collecting of the clouds 
out of the air, is a certain forerunner of rain, so when 
they decay and resolve themselves into air, it is a sure 
symptom of fair weather. 
When clouds are streaming within the canopy, and 
small ones enlarge themselves; when they are large, and 
shaped like rocks or towers; when waterish clouds are on 
the tops of mountains, and small, rugged, livid ones near 
the sun, especially at its setting, they all prognosticate rain. 
Clouds, with white summits ancl livid bases, foretel thun- 
der; and two such clouds rising on either hand, sudden 
tempests. 
If clouds are seen to breed high in the air, in thin white 
trains, like locks of wool, they denote that the vapour, as 
collected, is irregularly spread by contrary winds above; 
and the consequence will soon be a wind below, and pro- 
bably rain with it. 
Small and white clouds, high and light, and when 
mountains are free from clouds, high and light, are both 
symptoms of fine weather. 
Wind. — Whirlwind, settled fair. Continuing in the 
north-east three days, without rain, fair for eight or nine 
days; going backward, rain; when it veers hastily about 
to several points of the compass, rain quickly follows. 
When the wind makes a whistling or howling noise, it is 
as sure a prognostic of rain as the wind can afford. A 
brisk south wind, dry. Wind may be expected from that 
quarter or the opposite, if the clouds, as they come for- 
ward, seem to diverge from a point in the horizon. Wind 
from north-east to north-west, fair; from south-east to 
south-west, rainy. A week’s fair weather, with a south- 
erly wind, drought; an easterly wind the fore part of sum- 
mer, dry summer; westerly the latter part of summer, dry 
autumn. 
Dew . — A heavy dew, fair. If it vanishes suddenly or 
early, rain. When the dew lies plentifully upon the grass 
after a fine day, another fine one may be expected to suc- 
ceed it; but if, after such a day, no dew is upon the 
ground, and no wind stirring, it is a sign that the vapours 
ascend, where they will accumulate, and must terminate 
in rain. 
Vapours . — A misty morning, and the mist falls, a hot 
I day; if the mist rises, rain. If general before sun-rise, 
near the full of the moon, fine weather. 
G G 
Where there are high hills, and the mist which hangs over 
the lower lands in a morning draws towards the hills, and 
rolls up their sides until it covers their tops, there will be 
no rain. 
To judge correctly of the appearance of a fog, it is ne- 
cessary to be acquainted with the nature of the country, 
as, in some places, if the mist hangs upon the hills and 
drags along the woods, instead of overspreading the level 
ground in a morning, it will turn to rain. The contrary, 
when it comes down from the hills, and settles in the 
vallies. 
There is commonly either a strong dew or a mist over 
the ground between a red eve and a gray morn; but if a 
red morning succeeds, there is no dew. 
If a white mist in an evening or night is spread over a 
meadow through which a river passes, it will be drawn up 
by the next morning’s sun, and the day afterwards will be 
bright. 
When a rainbow appears in the morning, rain; in the 
evening, fine. The frustrum of a rainbow, rain; predomi- 
nantly red, wind; green or blue, rain; appearing in bois- 
terous weather in the north, fine. 
Lightning without thunder, after a clear day, is a sign 
of the continuance of fair weather. 
Sky . — When those vapours which the heat of the day 
exhales from the earth are precipitated by the cold night, 
then the sky is clear in the morning; but if they still re- 
main in the air, rain may be expected. 
A dark thick sky, lasting for some time, without either 
sun or rain, changes to a fair clear sky before it turns to 
rain. 
When a lowering redness spreads far upwards from the 
horizon, either in the morning or evening, it is succeeded 
either by rain or wind, frequently by both; and when a 
fiery redness, with rugged clouds, extends towards the 
zenith in an evening, a high wind from the west or south- 
west, attended with rain, follows; when the sky is tinged 
with a sea-green colour near the horizon, when it ought to 
be blue, rain will continue and increase; when of a dead 
blue, it is abundantly loaded with vapours, and will be 
showery. 
When the canopy is high, fair; low, rainy; orange co- 
loured in the morning, rain; deep blue ground, fair; pale 
blue, rainy. 
One observation is general, we believe , — <e the evening 
red, the morning gray, are sure signs of a fair day;” and 
it is founded upon this circumstance, that if the abundance 
of vapours denoted by the red evening sky descends in 
dew, or is otherwise so equally dispersed in the air, that 
the morning shall appear gray, a fine day may be expected 
from that equal state of the atmosphere. 
