METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS BAROMETER NOVEMBER 22, 1768. A remarkable fall of the barometer all over the kingdom. At Selborne we had no wind, and not much rain; only vast, swagging, rock-like clouds, appeared at a distance. PARTIAL FROST The country people who are abroad in winter mornings long before sun-rise, talk much of hard frost in some spots, and none in others. The reason of these partial frosts is obvious, for there are at such times partial fogs about; where the fog obtains, little or no frost appears: but 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, etc. of my garden-walks, brought from the down above, abounds with those appearances, which vary their shape, and shift situation continually, discovering themselves now in circles, now in segments, and sometimes in irregular patches and spots. Wherever they obtain, puff-balls abound; the seeds of which were doubtless brought in the turf. METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS BAROMETER NOVEMBER 22, 1768. A remarkable fall of the barometer all over the kingdom. At Selborne we had no wind, and not much rain; only vast, swagging, rock-like clouds, appeared at a distance. PARTIAL FROST The country people who are abroad in winter mornings long before sun-rise, talk much of hard frost in some spots, and none in others. The reason of these partial frosts is obvious, for there are at such times partial fogs about; where the fog obtains, little or no frost appears: but 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. times come from below? seems to come down from Does not the warmth at such The cold in still, severe seasons 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, etc. which extended from E. to W. across the welkin: but the moon rising at about ten o'clock, in unclouded majesty, in the E. put an end to this grand, but awful meteorous phenomenon. BLACK SPRING, 1771 Dr. Johnson says, that "in 1771 the season was so severe in the island of Sky, 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 were 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. ON THE DARK, STILL, DRY WARM WEATHER, OCCASIONALLY HAPPENING IN THE WINTER MONTHS. TH' imprison'd winds slumber within their caves Fast bound: the fickle vane, emblem of change, Wavers no more, long-settling to a point. All nature nodding seems compos'd; thick steams From land, from flood up-drawn, dimming the day, "Like a dark ceiling stand"; slow thro' the air Gossamer floats, or stretch'd from blade to blade The wavy net-work whitens all the field. Push'd by the weightier atmosphere, up springs 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 dew, the sky usually becomes cloudy by eleven or twelve o'clock in the forenoon, and clear again toward 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 the 30th of May the fields were burnt up and naked, and the barley not half out of the ground; but now, June 10, there is an agreeable prospect of plenty. AURORA BOREALIS November 1, 1787. The N. aurora made a particular appearance, forming itself into a broad, red, fiery belt, |