The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-01-22
WEATHER PRoeNosrlcs.
Some of the Signs Upon Which Careful oh
servers May Rely.

Some of the Signs Upon Which Careful OBJ
servers May Rely.
Few intelligent persons can have any
sympathy with the so-called prophets
who oracularly 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, intelligent persons
will be quite ready to concede, and they
will be in accord with the views of the
writer when he recommends the OBJ
servation 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 pro-
genitor of tomorrow. When the at
mosphere is telescope and distant OBJ
jects stand out unusually clear and dis
tinct, storm is near. We are on the
crest of the wave, and the depression
follows quick. 1t sometimes happens
that clouds are not so indicative of a
storm as their total absence. In this state
of the atmosphere the stars are unusual
ly numerous and bright at night, which
is also bad omen. 1t appears that
the transparency of the air is prodig-
iously increased when a certain guam
tity of water is uniformly diffused
through it. Mountaineers predict a
change of weather when, the air being
calm, the Alps covered with perpetual
snow, seem on a sudden to be nearer
the observer, and their outlines are
marked with great distinctness 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; another
that indicates wind. The first is broad,
deep and angry; the clouds look like an
immense bed of burning Goals; the sec
ond is soft and more vapory. At the
point where the sun is going to rise,
and few minutes in advance of his
coming there rises straight upward a
rosy column, like a shaft of dyed vapor,
blending with and and yet partly sep
arated from the clouds, and the base of
which presently 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 good indication, because
the insects upon which they feed ven
ture up there only in the most auspi-
ciOus weather.
People live in the country all their
lives without making one accurate OBJ
servation about nature. The good OBJ
server of nature holds his eye long and
firmly to the point, and finally gets the
facts, not only because he has the pa
tience, but because his eye is sharp and
his inference swift. The are many as
sertions, the result of hasty and incom-
plete observation, such as, for instance.
that the way the milky way points at
night indicates the direction of the wind
the next day; also that every new moon
indicates either dry or wet month.
There are many other stories about the
moon too numerous to mention.
Again, when farmer kills his hogs in
the fall, if the pork be very hard and
solid he predicts a severe winter; if
soft, the opposite, overlooking the fact
that the kind of food and the tempera-
V"L0 VI Clo AdlI hdhe TIC pork nafu 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 con-
illusions, being hasty and incomplete,
are wrong; and until he studies nature
understandingly, using little common
sense, so long will he be more or less
under the ban or superstition and ig-
norance.-Southera Planter.