The words engraved on the register plate of the barometer, it may be observed, cannot be strictly relied upon to correspond exactly with the state of the weather; though it will in general agree with them as to the mercury rising and falling. When the thermometer and barometer rise together in summer, with rain in large drops, a wholesome state of the atmosphere is at hand. A great and sudden rising of the barometer, that is to say, a great accession of atmospherical pressure, will, in some persons, occasion a slight temporary difficulty of hearing and tingling in the ears, similar to that which is experienced in descending from high mountains, or from the air in balloons. _Bats._--When bats return soon to their hiding places, and send forth loud cries, bad weather may be expected. _Beetles_ flying about late in an evening often foretell a fine day on the morrow. _Blue Sky._--When there is a piece of blue sky seen in the forenoon of a rainy day, big enough, as the proverb says, “to make a Dutchman a pair of breeches,” we shall probably have a fine afternoon. _Calm._--A dead calm often precedes a violent gale; and sometimes the calmest and clearest mornings, in certain seasons, are followed by a blowing showery day. Calms are forerunners of the hurricanes of the West Indies, and other tropical climes. _Candles_, as well as lamps, often afford good prognostics of weather. When the flames of candles flare and snap, or burn with an unsteady or dim light, rain, and frequently wind also, are found to follow. The excrescences from the wicks called funguses also denote rain and wind. _Cats_ are said, when they wash their faces, or when they seem sleepy and dull, to foretell rain. The same is said of them when they appear irritable and restless, and play with their tails. _Cattle_, when they gambol about in their pastures more than ordinary, foreshow rain, and in general a change of weather. _Chilliness_, and a sensation of cold greater than the indication of temperature by the thermometer leads us to expect, often forebode rain, as they show that there is already an increased moisture in the air, which experience has shown to be referable to the decomposition and the first formation of cloud. _Clouds_ of any sort, when they increase much, portend rain, particularly at eventide; when they are very red they often foreshow wind; when they form a dapple-gray sky, with north wind, fair weather; when they rapidly form and evaporate, variable weather. Clouds, fretted and spotted, covering the sky after fine weather, or wavy, like the undulation of the sea, forbode rain. _Colors_, of various kinds in the sky and clouds, tokens severally of different phenomena. Much red always forebodes wind and rain, particularly in the morning; in the evening it sometimes indicates a fine day, particularly if the morning be gray. A proverb says,