“I saw the new moon late yestreen
Wi’ the auld moon in her arm;
And if we gang to sea, master,
I fear we’ll come to harm.”
This lunar indication, then, has a sound physical basis, showing that near the observer there are vast areas of clouds, which are reflecting light upon the moon at the time, before they condense into rain by the chilling of the air. According to the old Greek poet, Aratus: “If the new moon is ruddy, and you can trace the shadow of the complete circle, a storm is approaching.”
CHAPTER XVIII
AN AUTUMN AFTERGLOW
A brilliant afterglow is welcomed for its surpassing beauty and a precursor of fine fixed weather.
A glorious sunset has always had a charm for the lover of nature’s beauties. The zenith spreads its canopy of sapphire, and not a breath creeps through the rosy air. A magnificent array of clouds of numberless shapes come smartly into view. Some, far off, are voyaging their sun-bright paths in silvery folds; others float in golden groups. Some masses are embroidered with burning crimson; others are like “islands all lovely in an emerald sea.” Over the glowing sky are splendid colourings. The flood of rosy light looks as if a great conflagration were below the horizon.
I remember witnessing an especially brilliant sunset last autumn on the high-road between Kirriemuir and Blairgowrie. The setting sun shone upon the back of certain long trailing clouds which were much nearer me than a range behind. The fringes of the front range were brilliantly golden, while the face of those behind was sparklingly bright. Then the sun disappeared over the western hills, and his place was full of spokes of living light.
Looking eastward, I observed on the horizon the base of the northern line of a beautiful rainbow—“the shepherd’s delight” for fine weather.