Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: ON THE SIGNS OF RAIN, WINDS, STORMS, AND FAIR WEATHER. We have in the following pages described, as far as was / attainable, the signs of rain, winds, storms and fair weather; some from our own previous observations, and the rest upon information from other persons of admitted authority. Now, such signs as occur at the risings and settings of stars we must take upon the information of Astronomers. Such settings are of two kinds; for the disappearance of a 2 star is its setting; and this occurs when the star sets together with the sun, and also when it sets as the sun rises.1 In like manner risings are of two kinds: some in the morning, when the star rises before the sun; and others at nightfall, when the star rises as the sun goes down. Indeed, what are called the risings of Arcturus occur in both ways; for in winter it rises at nightfall; but in late autumn in the morning. But, of the other stars which have received names, the majority have their risings in the morning, such as the Pleiades, Orion, and Sirius. Of the remaining weather signs, some are peculiar to all 3places in which there are high mountains and ravines; particularly such mountains as extend from a high elevation down to the sea ; for, when winds are beginning to blow, the clouds strike on such places ; but as the winds change to opposite quarters, the clouds correspondingly change their position,2 and becoming moister settle down by force of gravity into the hollows. 1 By " setting together with the sun" is probably meant setting in the west in the same course and in the same way as the sun sets ; for if the star sets at the same time as the sun it is not visible. Setting as the sun rises may mean either an actual setting below the horizon, or the disappearance of the star as the dawn overpowers...