where the air is clear, there it freezes hard. So the frost takes place either on hill or in dale, wherever the air happens to be clearest and freest from vapour.

THAW.-Thaws are sometimes surprisingly quick, considering the small quantity of rain. Does not the warmth at such times come from below? The cold in still, severe seasons, seems to come down from above: for the coming over of a cloud in severe nights raises the thermometer abroad at once full ten degrees. The first notices of thaws often seem to appear in vaults, cellars, &c.

If a frost happens, even when the ground is considerably dry, as soon as a thaw takes place, the paths and fields are all in a batter. Country people say that the frost draws moisture. But the true philosophy is, that the steam and vapours continually ascending from the earth, are bound in by the frost, and not suffered to escape, till released by the thaw. No wonder, then, that the surface is all in a float; since the quantity of moisture by evaporation that arises daily from every acre of ground is astonishing.

FROZEN SLEET.-January 20. Mr H.'s man says, that he caught this day, in a lane near Hackwood-park, many rooks, which, attempting to fly, fell from the trees with their wings frozen together by the sleet, that froze as it fell. There were, he affirms, many dozen so disabled.

MIST, CALLED LONDON SMOKE. This is a blue mist, which has somewhat the smell of coal smoke, and as it always comes to us with a north-east wind, is supposed to come from London. It has a strong smell, and is supposed to occasion blights. When such mists appear, they are usually followed by dry weather.*

But

Fogs happen every where, caused by the upper regions of the atmosphere being colder than the lower, by which the ascent of aqueous vapour is checked, and kept arrested near the surface of the earth. fogs are more dense about London, and probably all other great cities, than elsewhere: the reason is, because the vast quantity of fuliginous matter floating over such places mingles with the vapour, and renders the whole so thick, that darkness is sometimes produced at noonday, rendering candles and gas lights necessary for the transaction of ordinary business in the shops and public offices. Such circumstances happen frequently during winter; but on some occasions, (as about two o'clock P. M. on the 27th December, 1831,) this foggy darkness is truly awful. This extraordinary appearance is, however, caused by a very ordinary accident, namely, a change of wind. The west wind carries the smoke of the city to the westward in a long train, extending to the distance of twenty or thirty miles, as may be seen in a clear day by any person on an eminence five or six miles from the city.-ED.

REFLECTION ON FOG.- When people walk in a deep white fog by night with a lanthorn, if they will turn their backs to the light, they will see their shades impressed on the fog in rude gigantic proportions. This phenomenon seems not to have been attended to, but implies the great density of the meteor at that juncture.

HONEY DEW.-June 4, 1783.- Vast honey dews this week. The reason of these seems to be, that, in hot days, the effluvia of flowers are drawn up by a brisk evaporation, and then, in the night, fall down with the dews, with which they are entangled.

This clammy substance is very grateful to bees, who gather it with great assiduity; but it is injurious to the trees on which it happens to fall, by stopping the pores of the leaves. The greatest quantity falls in still, close weather; because winds disperse it, and copious dews dilute it, and prevent its ill effects. It falls mostly in hazy, warm weather. *

MORNING CLOUDS.- After a bright night and vast dews, the sky usually becomes cloudy by eleven or twelve o'clock in the forenoon, and clear 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

* Mr William Curtis has discovered honey dew to be the excrement of the aphides; and justly remarks, that it is not to be found on any plant where these insects do not accompany it. These aphides bring forth ninety young, according to the observations of Reaumur, so that, in five generations, the produce from a single one would be five thousand nine hundred and four millions, nine hundred thousand. - ED.

+ It may be useful to agriculturists to observe this small cloud, which is rapid in its formation and dispersion. It appears in the mild weather of spring, summer, and autumn. It is a small, delicately soft, thin, white, curved cloud, formed upon the summit of those fine, heaped clouds, termed comuli, which seem to tower up to a prodigious height. When this little "storm cap" is seen, it is closely over the rounded summit, like a white silken web. It disappears in a few seconds, and generally reappears, and again suddenly sinks. When this happens, foul weather is certain within twenty-four hours.-ED.

the thirtieth of May, the fields were burnt up and naked, and the barley not half out of the ground; but now, June the tenth, there is an agreeable prospect of plenty.*

AURORA BOREALIS.-November 1, 1787.-The north aurora made a particular appearance, forming itself into a broad, red, fiery belt, which extended from east to west across the welkin; but the moon rising at about ten o'clock, in unclouded majesty, in the east, put an end to this grand, but awful meteorous phenomenon. +

66

BLACK SPRING, 1771.—Dr Johnson says, that, “ in 1771, the season was so severe in the Island of Skye, 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 was so many barren cows known as in the spring following that dreadful period. Whole dairies missed being in calf together.

At the end of March, the face of the earth was naked to a surprising degree: wheat hardly to be seen, and no signs of any grass; turnips all gone, and sheep in a starving way; all provisions rising in price. Farmers cannot sow for want of rain.

* The annual average quantity of dew deposited in this country is estimated at a depth of about five inches, being about one-seventh of the mean quantity of moisture supposed to be received from the atmosphere, over all Great Britain, during the year; or about 22,161,337,355 tons, taking the ton at two hundred and fifty-two imperial gallons. -ED.

At what time this meteor was first observed, is not known; none are recorded in the English annals till the remarkable one, which happened on the 30th January, 1560; another very brilliant one appeared in 1760. M. Libos attributes the aurora to the decomposition of the two airs which compose the atmosphere, oxygen and nitrogen, in the polar regions, by an accumulation of the electric fluid there. This explanation is supported by a very accurate attention to the chemical phenomena produced on the atmosphere by electricity, which decomposes it, and forms nitrous gas. -ED.

Year.

SUMMARY OF THE WEATHER.

Measure of Rain in Inches and Hundreds.

Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May June July Aug. Sep Oct. Nov. Dec. Total. 1782. 4.64 1.98 6.54 4.57 6.34 1.75 7.09 8.28 3.72 1.93 2.51 0.91 50.26 1783. 4.43 5.54 2.16 0.88 2.84 2.82 1.45 2.24 5.52 1.71 3.01 1.10 33.71 1784. 3.18 0.77 3.82 3.92 1.52 3.65 2.40 3.88 2.51 0.39 4.70 3.06 33.80 1785. 2.84 1.80 0.30 0.17 0.60 1.39 3.80 3.21 5.94 5.21 2.27 4. 2 31.55 1786. 6.91 1.42 1.62 1.81 2.40 1.20 1.99 4.34 4.79 5. 4 4.38

1787. 0.88 3.67 4.28 0.74 2.60 1.50 6.53 0 83 1.56 5. 4 4. 95. 6 36.24 1788. 1.60 3.37 1.31 0.61 0.76 1.27 3.58 3.22 5.71 0. 0 0.86 0.23 22.50 1789. 4.48 4.11 2.47 1.81 4. 5 4.24 3.69 0.99 2.82 5. 4 3.67 4.62| 42.1790. 1.99 0.49 0.45 3.64 4.38 0.13 3.24 2.30 0.66 2.10 6.95 5.94 32.27 1791. 6.73 4.64 1.59 1.13 1.33 0.91 5.56 1.73 1.73 6.49 8.16 4-93 44.93 6. 7 1.68 6.70 4.08 3.00 2.78 5.16 4.25 5.53 5.55 1.65 2.11 48.56 3.71 2.32 3.33 3.19 1.21

1792. 1793.

1768. Begins with a fortnight's frost and snow; rainy during February. Cold and wet spring; wet season from the beginning of June to the end of harvest. Latter end of September, foggy, without rain. All October and the first part of November, rainy; and thence to the end of the year alternate rains and frosts.

1769. January and February, frosty and rainy, with gleams of fine weather in the intervals. To the middle of March, wind and rain. To the end of March, dry and windy. To the middle of April, stormy, with rain. To the end of June, fine weather, with rain. To the beginning of August, warm, dry weather. To the end of September, rainy, with short intervals of fine weather. To the latter end of October, frosty mornings, with fine days. The next fortnight, rainy; thence to the end of November, dry and frosty. December, windy, with rain and intervals of frost, and the first fortnight very foggy.

1770. Frost for the first fortnight; during the 14th and 15th, all the snow melted. To the end of February, mild, hazy weather. The whole of March, frosty, with bright weather. April, cloudy, with rain and snow. May began with summer showers, and ended with dark cold rains. June, rainy, chequered with gleams of sunshine. The first fortnight in July, dark and sultry; the latter part of the month, heavy rain. August, September, and the first fortnight in October, in general fine weather, though with frequent interruptions of rain; from the

middle of October to the end of the year, almost incessant rains.

1771. Severe frosts till the last week in January. To the first week in February, rain and snow; to the end of February, spring weather. To the end of the third week in April, frosty weather. To the end of the first fortnight in May, spring weather, with copious showers. To the end of June, dry, warm weather. The first fortnight in July, warm, rainy weather. To the end of September, warm weather, but in general cloudy, with showers. October, rainy. November, frost, with intervals of fog and rain. December, in general bright, mild weather, with hoar frosts.

1772. To the end of the first week in February, frost and snow. To the end of the first fortnight in March, frost, sleet, rain, and snow. To the middle of April, cold rains. To the middle of May, dry weather, with cold piercing winds. To the end of the first week in June, cool showers. To the middle of August, hot, dry summer weather. To the end of September, vain, with storms and thunder. To December 22, rain, with hild weather. December 23, the first ice. To the end of the month, cold, foggy weather.

1773. The first week in January, frost; thence to the end of the month, dark, rainy weather. The first fortnight in February, hard frost. To the end of the first week in March, misty, showery weather. Bright spring days to the close of the month. Frequent showers to the latter end of April. To the end of June, warm showers, with intervals of sunshine. To the end of August, dry weather, with a few days of rain. To the end of the first fortnight in November, rainy. The next four weeks, frost; and thence to the end of the year, rainy.

1774. Frost and rain to the end of the first fortnight in March: thence to the end of the month, dry weather. To the 15th of April, showers: thence to the end of April, fine spring days. During May, showers and sunshine in about an equal proportion. Dark, rainy weather to the end of the third week in July thence to the 24th of August, sultry, with thunder and occasional showers. To the end of the third week in November, rain, with frequent intervals of sunny weather. To the end of December, dark, dripping fogs.

1775. To the end of the first fortnight in March, rain almost every day. To the first week in April, cold winds, with showers of rain and snow. To the end of June, warm, bright weather, with frequent showers. The first fortnight in July, almost incessant rains. To the 26th August, sultry weather, with frequent showers. To the end of the third week in