t that water should float so far condensed,
in strata where the air is so much lighter, without being precipitated.
But electric attraction and repulsion between the different strata and the
vesicles, explain it.

In mid-winter, the cirrus forms are prevalent and most distinct. After
severe cold weather, when a storm approaches, the cirri form in long,
narrow threads, parallel to each other, extending from about W. S. W. to
E. N. E., gradually thickening and forming, or inducing, cirro-stratus and
stratus, and dropping snow. This form is called the _linear_-cirrus. The
tufted, and other fibrous forms, are seen in patches also, in great
distinctness, during these mid-winter days, when the wind gets around to
the southward, and the weather is pleasant. Such days are called
"_weather-breeders_," and their _offspring_ the patches of cirrus, which
are to extend and compose, or induce the storm, and indeed are an advance
part of it, are then never absent. A clear, moderate day, in a normal
winter, with wind from any southern point, however light, between the 1st
of January and the middle of February, without these patches of cirrus, is
very uncommon. Watch and see whether they tend to cirro-stratus, or
whether the wind gets around to the N. W. at nightfall, and they
disappear. If the former, a storm may be expected; if the latter, fair
weather.

Thus there are three peculiarities attending the forming cirrus of
mid-winter (1st of January to 10th of February): long, fibrous, parallel
bands in the morning (linear cirrus), gradually coalescing as the day
advances, after severe cold; the comoid, curled, or tufted cirrus, in
curling bunches, called "_mares'-tails_," and the _transverse_, when the
fibers are in bands or threads, which are not parallel, but cross each
other at angles, more or less acute. The two former varieties are
represented on Figure 5, page 26, indicated by one bird, but the last form
is a very prevalent one in our atmosphere.

Various names have been given to different forms of _cirro-stratus_. Those
represented in Figure 5, page 26, are the "_cymoid_" on the right, the
"_mottled_" on the left, below the cirro-cumulus; and the "_linear_"
below that. The form known as the "_mackerel sky_" is not represented
there. It consists of regular forms, resembling the _waves_ on the surface
of the water when the wind blows a gentle breeze. But the _wavy_ form, and
of all sizes, is very frequently assumed by cirro-strat