Morris tribune., 1884-12-31

and their spring steel clamps prevent
all liability of being thrown from the
rail by locomotive passing over
them. The torches are limited TO
burn ten minutes, and no storm will
extinguish them until burned out.
To ForeteII Weather
Weather wise prognosticators seem
to be on the increase. In last weeks
issue we quoted from Il Cincinnati
observer his method of fortelling the
changes in the weather from watch
ing the habits of animals and there
now comes from the South weather
profit who adds Il long list of the signs
which he has observed to precede
changes in the weather.
Few intelligent persons, says the
Southern Planter, can have any
sympathy with the so-called prophets
who oraculary announce phenomena,
giving dates, occasionally making
lucky hits, but as often firing
their random shots altogether wide of
the mark. That there is, however,
something in weather philosophy, in
tellegent persons will be quite ready
to concede: and they will be in accord
with the view of the writer when he
recommends the observation of natural
phenomena, Which has been long
practiced. He says
If one could read the signs, each
day foretells the next; to-day is the
progenitor of tomorrow. When the
atmosphere is telescope, and distant
objects stand out unusually
clear and distinct storm is near. We
are on the crest of the wave, and the
depression follows quick. 1t some
times happens that clouds are not so
Indicative of q storm as their total alb
sence. In this state of the atmosphere
the stars are unusually numerous ana
bright at might, which is also a bad
omen. 1t appears that the trans
parency of the air is prodigiously in
creased when certain quantity of
water is uniformly diffused through it.
Mountaineers predict change of
weather when the air being calm,
the Alps covered with
perpetual snow seem OH sudden to
be near the observer, and their out
lines are marked with great distinct
ness on the azure sky. This same
condition of the atmosphere renders
distant sounds more audible.
There is one redness of the east in
the morning that means storm; an
other that indicates wind, The first
is broad, deep and angry, the clouds
look like all immense bed of burning
Goals the second is soft and more va
pory. At the point where the sun is
going to rise, and a few minutes in adj
vance of his coming there rises
straight upward rosy column like a
shaft of dyed vapor, blending with
and yet partly separated from the
clouds, and the base of which present
ly comes to glow like the sun himself,
The day that follows is pretty sure to
be windy.
1t is uncertain to what extent birds
and animals can foretell the weather.
When swallows are seen hawking
very high it is a good indication be-
cause the insects upon which they
feed venture up there only in the
most suspicious weather.
People live in the country ali Their
lives without making one accurate
observation about nature. The good
| observer of natu re holds his eye long
and firmly to the point, and finally
gets the facts not only because he has
| patience, but because his eye is sharp
| and his inference swift. There are
many assertions, the result of hasty
| and incomplete observation, snch as
for instance, that the way the Milky
Way points at night indicates the di.
rection of the wind the next day; also
UlldU cfcIy hcW ulOOH luulCdLcS elUucI
| a dry or wet month. There are
many other stories about the moon toe
numerous to mention. Again when
a farmer kills his hogs in the fall, il
the pork is very hard and solid he pre-.
diets severe winter; if soft and loose
the opposite, overlooking the fact that
the kind of food and the temperature
of the fall make the pork hard or soft
Numerous other instances could be
cited to prove that the would-be
| shrewd farmer does not interpret ma
ture in the right way, and that his
conclusions, being hasty and incom.
plete are wrong; and until he studies
nature Understandings, using little
common sense, SO long will he be more
or less under the ban of superstition
and ignorance.-Scientific American.