Welsh Journals

Natural History and Phenomena. 445 appearance was entirely due to perspective. To this con¬ clusion we were led by noticing, on one favourable occa¬ sion, that after passing over our heads they all converged towards the opposite side of our horizon ! which was " too good to be true." Again : after long reading of and re¬ marking on the prevalence of the M Stratus" low down to¬ wards the horizon, whilst there was nothing at all approaching to it over head, it struck me at once, " The same as sparks on tinder," that as, on all these occasions without excep¬ tion, our " over-head " was some other folks' horizon, there could not possibly be that difference—that strong charac¬ teristic difference—between our horizon and theirs. That again was "too good to be true." So, after breaking loose from the " bondage of systems," we ran wild for a time, struck out the " Stratus or Fall-cloud" from the meteorological nomenclature, and pronounced horizon effects to be (as some one in haste said of " The East,") all humbug! Presently, however, we sobered down, and merely cautioned our friends, as I now caution the public, to prefer facts to names, and to make due allowance for perspective, aerial and ordinary, in the classification of Clouds, seeing that Stratus, Cirrostratus, Cumulostratus, are often names of optical illusions, not of distinct arrange¬ ments of matter, and suggest subjects of artistic rather than of scientific classification. Servare de Ccelo, or, (be sure) to Save (a Bit) of the Sky. About 1-30 on the 25th of November, 1863, between the Smithy and Newbuilding, on the Neston road from Spital, the sun being completely hidden by a bed of very distant clouds, beneath which several broad yellow bands of light were radiating quite naturally, a compact mass of