dry weather. On a fine summer’s evening the small masses which compose this cloud, are often well defined, and lying quite asunder, or separate from one another; and on this account the term sonder-cloud has been applied to this modification. The whole sky is sometimes covered with these small masses. They are occasionally, and more sparingly, seen in the intervals of showers, and in winter.
Bloomfield, in the following beautiful lines, has noticed the appearance of the sonder-cloud:—
“For yet above these wafted clouds are seen
(In a remoter sky still more serene)
Others, detach’d in ranges through the air,
Spotless as snow, and countless as they’re fair;
Scatter’d immensely wide from east to west,
The beauteous semblance of a flock at rest:
These, to the raptur’d mind, aloud proclaim
The mighty Shepherd’s everlasting name.”
This cloud may either evaporate or disappear, or it may pass to the cirrus, or sink lower and become a cirro-stratus. In stormy weather, before thunder, a cirro-cumulus often appears, composed of very dense and compact round bodies, in very close arrangement. When accompanied by the
cumulo-stratus, it is a sure indication of a coming storm.
THE CIRRO-STRATUS, OR WANE-CLOUD.
This cloud appears to be formed from the fibres of the cirrus sinking into a horizontal position, at the same time that they approach each other sideways. This cloud is to be distinguished by its flatness and great horizontal extension, in proportion to its height; a character which it always retains, under all its various forms. As this cloud is generally changing its figure, and slowly sinking, it has been called the wane-cloud. A collection of these clouds, when seen in the distance, frequently give the idea of shoals of fish. Sometimes the whole sky is so mottled with them, as to obtain for it the name of the mackerel-back sky, from its great resemblance to the back of that fish. Sometimes they assume an arrangement like discs piled obliquely on each other. But in this, as in other instances, the structure must be attended to rather than the form, for this varies much, presenting, at times, the appearance of parallel bars or interwoven streaks, like the grain of polished
wood. It is thick in the middle and thinned off towards the edge.
These clouds precede wind and rain. The near or distant approach of a storm may often be judged of from their greater or less abundance and duration. They are almost always to be seen in the