varieties of birds, the entire surface being also pitted by a shower of fossil rain-drops. The slabs are perfectly smooth on the inferior surface, and are about two inches in thickness. “The impression of a medallion is not more sharp and clear than are most of these imprints, and it may be proper to observe, that this remarkable preservation may be ascribed to the circumstance, that the entire surface of the stratum was incrusted with a layer of micaceous sandstone, adhering so firmly that it would not cleave off, thereby requiring the laborious and skilful application of the chisel. The appearance of this shining layer which is of a gray colour, while the fossil slab is a dark red, seems to carry the probability that it was washed or blown over the latter while in a state of loose sand, thus filling up the foot-prints and rain-drops, and preserving them unchanged until the present day—unchanged in the smallest particular, so far as relates merely to configuration, nothing being obliterated; the precise form of the nails, or claws, and joints, and in the deep impressions of the heel bone, being exquisitely preserved.” The small slab figured at p. 156 is described as being an incomparable specimen. “For purity of impression it is unsurpassed, and the living reality of the rain-drops, the beautiful colour of the stone, its sound texture and lightness, renders it a fit member for any collection of organic remains.” [Picture: Mandan rain-makers] CHAPTER VIII. COMMON SAYINGS RESPECTING THE WEATHER—SAINT SWITHIN’S-DAY—SIGNS OF RAIN OR OF FAIR WEATHER DERIVED FROM THE APPEARANCE OF THE SUN—FROM THAT OF THE MOON—FROM THE STARS—FROM THE SKY—FROM THE DISTINCTNESS OF SOUNDS—FROM THE RISING OF SMOKE—FROM THE PECULIAR ACTIONS OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS—PROGNOSTICS NOTICED BY SIR HUMPHREY DAVY—SIGNS OF RAIN COLLECTED BY DR. JENNER—NORTH AMERICAN RAIN-MAKERS—INCIDENT RELATED BY CATLIN—RAIN-DOCTORS OF SOUTHERN AFRICA—RAIN-DOCTORS OF CEYLON—SUPERSTITIONS GIVING WAY TO THE TEACHING OF MISSIONARIES—CONCLUSION. There are many proverbial sayings among country people concerning the state of the weather, which, having been derived from long observation, have become axioms, and were designated by Bacon “the philosophy of the people.” These prognostics are being set aside by the more certain lights of science, but there is no doubt that many natural objects may indicate symptoms of change in the atmosphere before any actually takes place in it to such an extent as to affect our senses. Some of these prognostics are of a general character applying to all seasons, and there are others which apply only to a particular season; but they may all be derived from appearances of the heavenly bodies and of the sky, the state of meteorological instruments, and the notions and habits of certain plants and animals. The author of the “Journal of a Naturalist” has some good observations on this subject. He says:—