r direction; ranging in storms from W. by S. to S. S. W., and in
showers between S. W. and N. W., to the opposite easterly points of the
compass; the most general direction, east of the Alleghanies, being from
W. S. W. to E. N. E._

But do we not see, you inquire--at least those of us who live east of the
Alleghanies--that when it rains, the wind is from the eastward; and that
the _clouds_ follow the wind from the east to the west? You do indeed,
generally, in all considerable storms, observe that the wind blows from
some easterly point, and that _seeming_ clouds are blown by it to the
westward; but what you see, and call clouds, are not the clouds which
furnish the rain. Far above the seeming clouds you notice, directly over
your head when it rains or snows, are the rain or snow clouds, dense and
dark, passing to the eastward, how strong soever the wind may blow from
the quarter to which they tend, or any other quarter, between you and
them. What you see below them are _scud_. So the sailors call them, and so
I have termed them. It is a "dictionary name," and a good one, expressive
of a distinction between them and _clouds_. They are thin, and the sun
shines through them, although with some difficulty, when the rain clouds
above are absent or broken. _This east wind and the scud are not the
storm, or essential parts of it._ Storms occasionally exist, particularly
in April, without either. They are but _incidents_, _useful_, but not
_necessary incidents_, as all surface winds are.

If you could see a section of the storm, you would see the rain cloud
above, moving to the east, and the scud beneath running to the west, as
indicated by the arrows in the cut on page 40. Opportunities frequently
occur when these appearances may be seen. Storms are sometimes very long,
a thousand miles, perhaps, from W. S. W. to E. N. E., and not more than
one to three hundred miles wide from S. E. to N. W., and their sides,
particularly the northern ones, regular, and without extensive partial
condensation. Then the storm cloud above, moving to the eastward, and the
scud running under to the westward, may be seen as in the cut.

So they may be seen before, at the commencement, and at the conclusion of
easterly storms, in a majority of cases, and the reader is desired to
notice them particularly as opportunities occur.

The term _running_, too, is a very expressive one, used by sailors as
applicable to _scud_. For while the forming or form