r the more intense area of
Ohio, and other portions of the west. All violent local storms are
doubtless owing to local magneto-electric activity.

CHAPTER XI.

The reader who has attentively perused and considered the facts stated,
and the principles deduced, in the preceding pages, and is ready to make a
practical application of them by careful observation, will have little
difficulty in understanding the varied atmospheric conditions; and will
soon be able to form a correct judgment of the immediate future of the
weather, so far as his limited horizon will permit.

But there are other facts and considerations, not specifically alluded to,
which will materially aid him in his observations; and there is a degree
of philosophical truth in the proverbs and signs, which ancient popular
observation accumulated, and poetry and tradition have preserved, that
meteorologists have been slow to discover or admit, but which will be
obvious upon examination, and commend them to his attention.

The classical reader is doubtless familiar with that part of the first
Georgic of Virgil, which contains a description of the signs indicative of
atmospheric changes. Much of it is beautifully poetic, and, if read in the
light of a correct philosophy, is equally truthful.

I copy from a creditable translation, found in the first volume of
Howard's "Climate of London":

"All that the genial year successive brings,
Showers, and the reign of heat, and freezing gales,
Appointed signs foreshow; the Sire of all
Decreed what signs the southern blast should bring,
Decreed the omens of the varying moon:
That hinds, observant of the approaching storm,
Might tend their herds more near the sheltering stall."

PROGNOSTICS.--_1st. Of Wind._

"When storms are brooding--in the leeward gulf
Dash the swell'd waves; the mighty mountains pour
A harsh, dull murmur; far along the beach
Rolls the deep rushing roar; the whispering grove
Betrays the gathering elemental strife.
Scarce will the billows spare the curved keel;
For swift from open sea the cormorants sweep,
With clamorous croak; the ocean-dwelling coot
Sports on the sand; the hern her marshy haunts
Deserting, soars the lofty clouds above;
And oft, when gales impend, the gliding star
Nightly descends athwart the spangled gloom,
And leaves its fire-wake glowing white behind.
Light chaff and leaflets flitting fill the air,
And sportive fea