un shines dimly and through lines of whitish cirrus cloud extending
from the horizon at the west, appearing darker as the sun descends and
shines more _horizontally_ through them--perhaps mainly in the N. W.--and
which extend up and over toward the E. N. E. The air next the earth begins
to feel raw; it is changing, not from warm to cold, but _electrically_
from positive to negative; and dampening, from a tendency to condensation
by induction, as we shall see--the same condensation which in warm
weather may be seen on flagging stones, and walls, and vessels containing
cold water. The advance cirrus condensation of the storm is over us and
affecting us; the earth too is affecting the adjacent atmosphere by action
extended from beneath the storm. Still there is no wind, although sounds
seem to be heard a little more distinctly from the east, and so ends the
day. Evening comes, and the moon wades in a smooth bank of cirro-stratus
haze, with a very large circle around her; the cirrus bands of haze have
coalesced and formed a thin stratus. The storm is coming steadily on, its
condensation is seen to be thicker as it approaches, it is now raining
from one hundred to one hundred and fifty miles to the west, but we do not
know it.

That it is about to storm all believe, for all are conscious of a change.
The candle if extinguished will not relight as readily, if at all, on
being blown; there is a crackling almost too faint for snow in the fire;
the sun did not set clear; the old rheumatic joints complain, and the
venerable corns ache.

Morning comes, and the storm is on. The wind is blowing from the S. E.,
the scud are running rapidly from the same quarter to the N. W., the
thermometer continues rising, and it rains. The storm has reached us and
the thaw has commenced. Gradually, as the densest portion of the storm
cloud reaches us, it darkens; the scud are nearer the earth, and run with
more rapidity; the rain falls more heavily and continuously, and by the
middle of the day a thick fog has enveloped the earth; the wind is dying
away, and the trade itself, with its southern tendency to fog, has settled
near us; the barometer has fallen, the thermometer is up to fifty degrees,
the water is running down the hills, the snow is saturated with water and
is disappearing under the influence of the fog, the rain, and the warm
air. Evening comes; the south-east wind and the rain have ceased; the rain
clouds have passed off to the eastwa