The owls, that mark the setting sun, declare
A starlight evening and a morning fair.”
We might quote further selections respecting the signs in the heaven and earth mentioned, but the foregoing verses will be sufficient to illustrate our position, and to show us that weather forecasting is, at any rate, as old as the Christian era.
The moon is generally supposed to influence the weather—a “Saturday’s Moon” being particularly objectionable, or when she appears anew at some hours after midnight thus—
“When first the moon appears, if then she shrouds
Her silver crescent, tipped with sable clouds,
Conclude she bodes a tempest on the main,
And brews for fields impetuous floods of rain.”
