ence of the wind and scud as evidences that we
were to have the desired rain, were deceived. Thus, the couplet from an
old almanac:

"If _woolly fleeces_ strew the heavenly way,
Be sure no rain disturb the summer day."

When this morning condensation is not high fog, and is dense and passing
east with a wavy appearance, it is very certain to rain. Jenner says:

"The boding shepherd heaves a sigh,
_For see, a rainbow spans the sky_."

An old almanac had the following verse:

"A rainbow in the morning
Is the shepherd's warning;
A rainbow at night
Is the shepherd's delight."

So the proverb was originally made; but as our ancestors were not
shepherds, and had a horror of ocean storms, it was commonly quoted, in
this country, in the following form:

"A rainbow in the morning,
The sailors take warning," etc.

Rainbows are not reflected from _clouds_, but falling rain, and a morning
rainbow at the west is, of course, evidence that it is _actually raining
there_, and will, in all probability, pass over us. "Thunder in the
morning, rain before night," is a common saying, and a true one. There is
a belt of showers, or showery period approaching, of unusual
intensity--for thunder showers in the morning are rare. The afternoon is
their most common period, and they are very apt to appear then, when the
morning is showery.

Of the different forms of cirrus and cirro-stratus, which appear during
the day, and indicate approaching storms, or of cumulus indicative of
showers, it is difficult to give an intelligible description without very
many illustrations. I have many daguerreotype views, taken at different
seasons of the year, and at a time when different forms of cirrus and
cirro-stratus condensation, indicative of storms, exhibited themselves.
They differ, as I have said, and it must be remembered, very much at
_different seasons_ of the year, and in _different years_, and their
delicate shades are taken with difficulty by the artist, and reproduced
with difficulty, and only at considerable expense, by the engraver; and I
have omitted them. The time will come when a knowledge of their language
will be sought for and read--when the "countenance of the sky" will be an
object of intelligent interest to all whose business may be affected by
the weather, or who love to learn of nature. But it is not yet. This is
the age of theory and speculation. The time of actual, practical,
connected observation and