WEASEL-SNOUT. 
the farmer in winter by clearing his premises of 
rats and mice,—doing far more execution upon 
them than can be possibly done by the cat; but 
it sweeps the pigeon-house of both eggs and 
young birds, and makes fearful havoc in the 
poultry-yard and upon the hen-roost. It sleeps 
in its hole during the greater part of the day, 
and comes forth in the evening to commence its 
depredations, and may then be seen stealing 
cautiously from its retreat, and creeping fur- 
tively in search of eggs, chickens, pigeons, game, 
and rabbits. It does not devour on the spot 
what it kills, but drags it off to be eaten at its 
leisure; and if it find old hens or cocks abroad 
from the poultry-yard, it does not scruple to 
| attack them. It has an insatiable and coarse 
appetite, and loves its food best when reduced 
to a state of incipient putrefaction, and always 
emits a very strong and offensive odour. It can- 
not without extreme difficulty be domesticated ; 
yet it might perhaps beso far tamed as to be 
| rendered serviceable for clearing out rats from 
ships, close old buildings, and similar places. 
When it becomes wastefully or insuperably mis- 
chievous upon a farm, it may be caught by the 
hutch or box trap, baited with an egg or a small 
bird, or destroyed by a mixture of sal ammoniac, 
| white of egg, wheat flour, and honey, laid in 
_ small doses near the places which it frequents. 
| WEASEL-SNOUT. The yellow dead nettle. 
See the article Dnap Nerrie. 
WEATHER. The agencies, phenomena, and 
departments of weather are fully discussed in 
the articles MrerroroLogy, ATMOSPHERE, CLouDS, 
CaLENDAR, WinD, Euectricity, Dew, Rarn, Snow, 
Frost, Hoar-Frost, Accrpents, Buicgut, Baro- 
METER, ANEMOMETER, and many others whose titles 
either occur in the chief of these articles, or will 
readily suggest themselves to all persons desirous 
of information. Only the subject of weather- 
A A ART NST A NE RR 
prognostics remains to be discussed here; and 
even this has elsewhere been so fully disposed of 
as to its principles, that it requires to be dis- 
cussed here with reference only to facts and 
appearances. 
“The study of the changing phenomena of 
the atmosphere,” remarks our contemporary, W. 
Cuthbert Johnson, Esq., “has from the earliest 
periods occupied a greater or less share of atten- 
tion from the tiller of the soil, the gardener, and 
those engaged in the pasturage of animals. ‘To 
no individual (the mariner, perhaps, excepted) 
is a foreknowledge of the probable future state 
of the weather of more consequence and impor- 
tance than the agriculturist; for on this must 
mainly depend the progress and success of his 
field operations, his seed-time and his harvest, 
and the greater or less return afforded by his 
| crops. It may not comport with the dignity of 
the man of science, or the elevated learning of 
the erudite philosopher, to have his eyes and 
ears open to the plain and simple rules and 
guides which nature lays out before him. Per- 
| 
WEATHER. 637 
haps he has little of leisure to note the everyday 
phenomena which the atmosphere and all ani- 
mate and inanimate nature hold up to observa- 
tion, as in a glass, where all who use their eyes 
may read as they run. The companions of his 
study are the more costly and elaborately pre- 
pared philosophical instruments ; how much, 
however, might their value be enhanced by a 
careful and comparative observation of the 
‘skyey influences,’ as the poet terms them? 
But to these closet companions the husband- 
man, the shepherd, the traveller, the fisherman, 
and the mariner have rarely access, while en- 
gaged in the busy out-of-door occupations of 
their several avocations. Those who till the 
land, or who go down to the sea in ships, of all | 
others, are they who become, by habits of obser- 
vation and reflection, most conversant with the 
signs and changes of the heavens. The sun, the 
moon, and the stars are to them monitors and 
instructors, whose warning voices meet a prompt 
and ready response. The ripple of the wave, the 
curl of the smoke, the passing shadow of the 
cloud, the budding of the tree, the arrival and 
departure of the migratory birds, the frolicsome 
gambols of animals, every leaf that quivers in 
the sunbeam, every plant that drinks the dew 
of heaven, the myriads of insects, and creeping 
things innumerable, that inhabit each leaf and 
opening flower, are all fraught with instruction 
and information to the experienced and watch- 
ful observer. Around, above, beneath, all ani- 
mate and inanimate creation, animals, vegeta- 
bles, the elements, a thousand objects in a thou- 
sand directions, in every recurring season, fur- 
nish their quota of information towards our stock 
of meteoric knowledge, and foretell the approach- 
ing variations of atmospheric phenomena. The 
experienced fisherman and the watchful and 
wary mariner will predict the coming storm, by 
the tiny cloud and other unerring criteria which 
frequent and attentive observance of the sky has 
rendered familiar, long before its approach is 
visible to the ken of the ordinary and inattentive 
observer. It has been well remarked, that ‘ the 
shepherd, whose sole business it is to observe 
what has a reference to the flock under his care, 
who spends all his days and many of his nights 
in the open air, under the wide-spread canopy 
of heaven, is obliged to take particular notice of 
the alterations of the weather; and when he - 
cares to take a pleasure in making such obser- 
vations, it is amazing how much progress he 
makes in them, and to how great a certainty he 
arrives at last, by mere dint of comparing signs 
and events, and connecting one observation with 
another. Hvery thing in time becomes to him 
a weather-gauge; the sun, the moon, the stars, 
the clouds, the winds, the mists, the trees, the 
flowers, the herbs, and almost every insect, ani- 
mal, and reptile with which he is acquainted— 
all these become, to such a person, instruments 
of real knowledge.’ ‘To the farmer, a careful 
a> - ea Al 
