succeed it; but if after such a day there is no dew upon the ground, and no wind stirring, it is a sign that the vapours go upwards, and that there will be an accumulation above, which must terminate in rain.

SIGNS FROM THE FACE OF THE SKY.

If those vapours which the heat of the day raises from the earth, are precipitated by the cold air of the night, then the sky is clear in the morning; but if this does not happen, and they remain still in the air, the light of the morning will be coloured as it was in the evening, and, rain will be the consequence.

There is commonly either a strong dew, or a mist over the ground, between a red evening and a grey morning; but if a red morning succeeds, there is no dew.

It is a bad symptom when a lowering redness is spread too far upwards from the horizon, either in the morning or in the evening; it is succeeded either by rain or wind, and frequently both.

When such a fiery redness, together with a raggedness of the clouds, extends towards the zenith in an evening, the wind will be high from the west or south-west, attended with rain, sometimes with a flood: before the late dreadful hurricane of 1780, at Barbadoes, and the other West-India Islands, a redness like fire was observed all over the sky. When the sky, in a rainy season, is tinged with a sea-green colour, near the horizon, when it ought to be blue, the rain will continue and increase; if it is of a deep dead blue, it is abundantly loaded with vapours, and the weather will be showery.

SIGNS FROM THE SUN, MOON, AND STARS.

When there is a haziness aloft in the air, so that the sun's light fades by degrees, and his orb looks whitish and ill-defined, it is one of the most certain signs of rain.

If the moon and stars grow dim in the night,> with the like haziness in the air, and a ring or hole appears round the moon, rain will be the consequence.

If the rays of the sun, breaking through the clouds, are visible in the air, and appear like those horns of irradiation which painters usually place upon the head of Moses, the air is sensibly filled with vapours, which reflect the rays to the sight, and those vapours will soon produce rain.

If the sun appears white at his setting, or shorn of his rays, or goes down into a bank of clouds, which lie in the horizon; all these are signs of approaching or continuing bad

weather.

If the moon looks pale and dim, we are to expect rain; if red, it is a sign of wind; and if white, and of her natural colour, and the sky clear, it will be fair weather, according to a poe-tical adage.

If a new moon happens at twelve at night, rain is lately observed to follow.

PALLIDA LUNA PLUIT, RUBICUNDA FLAT, ALBA SCRENAT.

If the moon is rainy throughout her course, it will clear up at the ensuing change, and the rain will probably commence again in a few days after, and continue; if, on the contrary, the moon has been fair throughout, and it rains at the change, the fair weather will probably be res

tored about the fourth or fifth day of the moon, and continue as before:

Sin ortu quarto (namque is cetissimus auctor)
Pura, neque obtusis per cœlum cornibus ibit,
Totus et ille dies, et qui nascentur ab illo
Exactum ad mensem, pluvian ventisque carebuut..
VIRG. GEORGE. 132.

But four nights old, (for that's the surest sign,)
With sharpen'd horns, if glorious then she shine :
Next day, not only that, but all the moon,
'Till her revolving race be wholly run,

Are void of tempests.

DRYDEN.

N. B. A gentleman who cuts hay for his own consumption, will seldom fail to find his account in marking this observation; but a farmer who has much business to do, cannot contract his work into so small so compass, as to save himself by the benefit of this observation, because some of his work must be done to make way for the

rest.

SIGNS FROM THE WINDS.

When the wind veers about, uncertainly, to several points of the compass, rain is pretty sure to follow.

Some have remarked, that if the wind, as it veers about, follows the course of the sun, from the east towards the west, it brings fair weather; if the contrary, fonl; but there is no prognostic of rain more infallible, than a whistling or howling noise of the wind.

FROM NOCTURNAL METEORS.

When an Aurora borealis appears, after some warm day's, it is generally succeeded by a coldness

of the air; a
upwards from the earth to the sky.

if the matter of heat was carried

SIGNS OF THE CHANGE OF WEATHER FROM THE ANIMAL CREATION.

So long as the swallows fly aloft after their prey, we think ourselves sure of a serene sky; but when they skim along near the ground, or the surface of the water, we judge the rain is not far off, and the observation will seldom fail: in the year 1775, a draught of three months continuance broke up at the summer solstice: the day before the rain came upon us, the swallows flew very near the ground, which they had never done in the fine weather.

In the mountainous country of Derbyshire, which goes by the name of the Peak, the inhabitants observe, that if the sheep wind up the hills in the morning to their pasture, and feed near the tops, the weather, though cloudy and drizzling, which is very frequently the case in those parts, will clear away by degrees,, and terminate in a fine day; but if they feed in the bottoms, the rains will continue and increase.

Dogs grow sleepy and stupid before rain, and shew that their stomachs are out of order, by refusing their food, and eating grass, that sort which is hence called dog's grass; this they cast up again soon afterwards, and with it the foulness that offended their stomachs. Water fowl dive and wash themselves more than ordinary; and even the fish in rivers are affected, because all anglers agree, that they never bate freely when rain is depending, Vide part 1st, rule 16th. Flies, on the contrary, are particularly troublesome, and seem to more hungry than usual; and toads are seen in

the evening, crawling across the road, or beaten path, where they seldom appear but when they are restless with an approaching change.

All

Before any considerable quantity of rain is to fall, most living creatures are affected in such sort, as to render them some way sensible of its approach, and of the access of something new to the surface of the earth, and of the atmosphere. Moles work harder than ordinary, they throw up more earth,and sometimes come forth: the worms do so too: ants are observed to stir about, and bustle more than usually for some time, and then retire to their burrows before the rain falls. sorts of insects and flies are more stirring and busy than ordinary. Bees are ever on this occasion in fullest employ; but betake themselves all to their hives, if not too far for them to reach before the storm arises. The common flesh-flies are more bold and greedy: snails, frogs, and toads, appear disturbed and uneasy. Fishes are sullen, and made qualmish by the water, now more turbid than before. Birds of all sorts are in action; crows are more earnest after their prey, as are also swallows and other small birds, and therefore they fall lower, and fly nearer to the earth in search of insects and other such things as they feed upon. When the mountains of the north begin to be capped with fogs, the moor-cocks and other birds quit them, fly off in flocks, and betake themselves to the lower lands for the time. Swine discover great uneasiness; as do likewise sheep, cows, and oxen, appearing more solicitous and eager in pasture than usual. Even mankind themselves are not exempt from some sense of a change in their bodies.