ON THE POPULARITY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
119 
description renders it impossible to mistake them, and is indeed so just as to be 
referred to in scientific works. 
The Cumulo-stratus. 
4( Now eve o’erhangs the western cloud’s thick brow; 
The far-stretch’d curtain of retiring light, 
With fiery treasures fraught; that on the sight 
Flash from its bulging sides, where darkness lours, 
In fancy a eye a chain of mouldering towers ; 
Or craggy coasts just rising into view, 
Midst jav’lins dire, and darts of streaming blue.” 
The poet describes 44 the slow-winged storm along the troubled skies/’ as follow¬ 
ing- this aspect of the cumulo-stratus, and in a scientific enumeration of clouds 
now before me, it is observed of this modification of cloud, that 44 long ranges 
often seem to rest upon our hills, where they generally indicate a change of wea¬ 
ther.” . 
The Cirrocumulus, or Sonder-Gloud. 
-“ The white-rob’d clouds in clusters driv’n, 
And all the glorious pageantry of heaven. 
* * * a a « « 
Far yet above these wafted clouds are seen 
(In a remoter sky still more serene,) 
Others, detach'd , in ranges through the air , 
Spotless as snow, and countless as they're fair ; 
Scatter’d immensely wide from east to west. 
The beauteous semblance of a flock at rest." 
Perhaps a better description could not be given of this lovely form of cloud, so 
often the accompaniment of a fine night, when the moon sails majestically along 
in the azure heavens, surrounded and followed by milk-white squadrons of these 
innumerable guards. 
I have purposely selected the preceding examples as being plain yet admir¬ 
able descriptions, unattended (I will not say unincumbered) by any sentiment¬ 
ality, with which poets often mix up—as they have a right to do—their descrip¬ 
tions of, and allusions to, natural objects and scenery, thus giving distaste to 
many well-meaning, but somewhat squeamish persons. I shall, however, before 
closing this part of my subject, give a specimen of a somewhat more ornate style, 
which indeed is not to be objected to, provided the boundaries of truth and pro¬ 
bability are not infringed upon. As this style of description bears the character 
of a study, though pleasing to many, it should be entered upon with caution. 
The following extract is from Chateaubriand’s Genius of Christianity. 
44 The Bullfinch builds in the Hawthorn, the Gooseberry, and other bushes of 
our gardens; her eggs are slate-coloured, like the plumage of her back. We re¬ 
collect having once found one of these nests in a Rose-bush; it resembled a shell« 
