BY E. D. TOWNSEND (ADAPTED) One day, as the general was sitting at his table in the office, the messenger announced that a person desired to see him a moment in order to present a gift. A German was introduced, who said that he was commiss... Read more of General Scott And The Stars And Stripes at Children Stories.ca

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Clouds Large Like Rocks Great Showers
Fair Weather For A Week
Clouds In Summer Or Harvent
Clouds: Small And Round Like A Dappley-grey With A North-wind Fair Weather For 2 Or 3 Days
If In The New Moon Rain In The Old
If Cloudy And It Soon Decrease Certain Fair Weather
If In The Old Rain In The New
When The Wind Turns To North East
If Large Clouds Decrease Fair Weather
Mists If They Rise In Low Ground And Soon Vanish } Fair Weather

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Mists A General Mist Before The Sun Rises Near The Full Moon Fair Weather
If Small Clouds Increase Much Rain
If It Begins To Rain From The South
Mists If They Rise To The Hill-tops } Rain In A Day Or Two
If The Sun Rise Red And Firey Wind And Rain
Winds Observe That In Eight Years' As Many Wet Years As Dry
If Two Such Clouds Arise One On Either Hand It Is Time To Make Haste To Shelter
If October And November Are Full Of Snow And Frost
Spring And Summer
Winter Time

Clouds In Summer Or Harvent

In Summer or Harvest, when the Wind has been South two or
three Days, and it grows very hot, and you see Clouds rise with
great white Tops like Towers, as if one were upon the Top of
another, and joined together with black on the nether Side,
there will be Thunder and Rain suddenly.

WE may very easily account for this Observation, because in Fact the
Signs here mentioned are no other than Nature's apparatus for a Storm
of Thunder and Lightning, which will be perfectly understood by
attending a little to the Causes of these Meteors. Lightning is a great
flame, very bright, extending every way to a great distance, suddenly
darting upwards, there ending, so that it is only momentaneous. The
Matter which produces the Fire, is the Oil of Plants, attenuated by the
heat of the Day, and raised on high. Then whatever has exhaled from the
Earth that is sulphureous or Oily, which is dispersed up and down in
the Atmosphere, and is not continuous, is set on Fire by Turns, and the
Flame dilates itself as far as the Tract of that Exhalation reaches.
Some other Substance pendant and floating in the Air meets with this
also, with which it excites an effervescence, takes Fire and flashes
along with it. Thunder is another bright Flame, rising on a sudden,
moving with great Velocity through the Air, according to any
Determination upwards from the Earth horizontally, obliquely, downwards
in a right Line, or in several right Lines as it were in serpentine
Tracts joined at various Angles, and commonly ending with a loud Noise
or Rattling.

IT is observed that it thunders most when the Wind blows from the
South, and least when it blows from the East. The great Principle of
Thunder is Sulphur, as is evident from the Smell it leaves behind it;
but in order to occasion such an Explosion, there must be other
Ingredients mixed therewith, especially Nitre, of which the Air is
always full, besides other Things, of which it is impossible to give
any Account. The Tracts of this Sort of Matter fly about in the Air,
and are as it were Lines of Gunpowder, and as in the firing of that
Powder, the Fire begins at one End, and pursuing its Aliment proceeds
to the other Extremity, and so the whole Mass of Powder is fired; we
may from thence account for the Phaenomenon of Thunder. For in like
Manner those inflamed Tracts which are suspended in the Air, flash from
a Flame that runs from one Extreme to the other, wherever the Vein of
Nourishment leads it. Hence those Rays of Thunder, which seem to be
brandished through the Air, and sometimes to be split in two or more
Tracts, and sometimes to return back, at other Times to be projected in
Lines that are joined by various Angles, and this only because the
Flame meets with Tracts lying in various Situations that cohere one
with another. Therefore Thunder seems now to run horizontally, now from
above downwards, now upwards from the Earth, for if the Matter of
Thunder pressing out of the Earth is enflamed near the Ground, the
Flame darting upwards, the Thunder will seem to be projected out of the
Earth. If the same Tract be set on Fire at its upper end, the Flame
will move downwards, and the Thunder will seem to descend out of the
Sky.

HENCE we easily understand how it comes to thunder oftener in one Place
than another, but most frequently in those where the Soil produces
odoriferous Herbs, and abounds with Sulphur, and where the People are
much exposed to the extreme Heat of the Sun. Thunder is less frequent
in Places where there are few odoriferous Herbs, very little Sulphur,
or where the Climate is watery and moist. For Instance, it thunders
very much in Italy and Sicily, and very rarely in Egypt, and the
adjacent Countries. If it be demanded how it comes to thunder in the
midst of the Ocean? The Answer is easy, because from the Bottom of the
Ocean vast Tracts of sulphureous Matter are cast up through the Waters;
as it happens to spring Waters in several Places, the Streams of which
will take Fire from a lighted Candle. For sulphureous Exhalations
bursting out together with the Waters, the fulmineous Matter in the Air
is set on Fire when it meets with Exhalations or Vapours with which it
can excite a vehement Effervescence. It is very clear from this
Account, that the Clouds mentioned at the Top of the twenty-eighth Page
are thunder Clouds, or Clouds big with the Materials of Thunder.

Next: If Two Such Clouds Arise One On Either Hand It Is Time To Make Haste To Shelter
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