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Show ( II6 ] YouR lucid bands condenfe with fingers chill The blue tnifi hovering round the gelid hill; 20 In clay-form'd beds the trickling fireams colleCt, Strain through white fands, through pebbly veins direct; Or point in rifted rocks their dubious way, And in each bubbling fountain rife to day. The blue mijl. 1. 2o. Mifl:s are clouds refl:ing on the ground; they generally come on at the beginning of night, and either fill the moifl: vallies, or hang on the fummits of hills, according to the degree of moifiure previoully dilfolved, and the eduCtion of heat from them. The air over rivers during the warmth of the day fufpends much moifl:ure, and as the changeful furface of rivers occafions them to cool fooner than the land at the approach of evening, mifl:s are mofl: frequently feen to begin over rivers, and to fpread themfelves over moifl: grounds, and fill the vallies, while the mifis on the tops of mountains are more properly clouds, condenfed by the coldnefs of their fituation. On afcending up the fide of a hill from a mifly valley, I have obferved a beautiful coloured halo round the moon when a certain thicknefs of mifl: was over me, which ceafed to be vifible as foon as I emerged out of it; and well remember admiring with other fpectators the fhadow of the three fpires of the cathedral church at Lichfield, the moon rifing behind it, apparently broken off, and lying difiinaly over our heads as if horizontally on the furface of the mifi, which arofe about as high as the roof cf the church. There are fame curious remarks on fhadows or refleCtions fcen on the furface of mifis from high mountains in Ulloa's Voyages. The dry mi!l: of fum mer 1783, was probably occafioncd by volcanic eruption, as mentioned in note on Chunda, Vol. I I. and therefore more like the atmofphere of fmoke which hangs on !l:i\1 days over great cities. There is a dry mift, or rather a dimini01ed tranfparence of the air, which according to Mr. Saulfure accompanies fair weather, while great tranfparence of air indicates rain. Thus when large rivers two miles broad, fuch as at Liverpool, appear narrow, it is faid to prognoflicate rain; and when wide, fair weather. This want of tranfparence of the air in dry weather, may be owing to new combinations or decompofitions of the vapours diffolved in it, but wants further invefl:igation. Elfais fur L'H ygrometric, p. 357. R ~zmd the gelid hill. ib. See additional notes, No. XXVI. on the origin of fprings. [ I I 7 ) , ~' NYMPHS! vou then g_uide, attendant from their fource,. The affociate rills along their finuous courfe ; Float in brjght fquadrons by the willowy brink, Or circling flow in limpid eddies fink; Call from her cryfial cave the Naiad-Nymph, Who hides he-r fine form in the paffing lymph, And, as below ihe braids her hyaline hair,. Eyes her foft fmiles reflected in the air; Or fport in groups with River-Boys, that lave Their filken limbs amid the da!hing wave ; Pluck the pale primrofe bending from its· edge, Or tittering dance amid the whifpering fedge.- '' Onward You pafs, the pine-capt hills divide, Or feed the golden harvefis on their fide ; The wide-ribb' d arch with hurrying torrents fill, Shove the flow barge, or whirl the foaming mill. OR lead with beckoning hand the fparkling train Of refluent water to its parent main,, 30'· 35 |
