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The Rainbow Colours

First the flaming Red
Sprung vivid forth; the tawny Orange next;
And next delicious Yellow; by whose side
Fell the kind beams of all-refreshing Green.
Then the pure Blue, that swells autumnal skies,
Ethereal play'd: and then, of sadder hue,
Emerged the deepen'd Indigo, as when
The heavy-skirted evening droops with frost;
While the last gleamings of refracted light
Died in the fainting Violet away.
These, when the clouds distil the rosy shower,
Shine out distinct adown the watery bow;
While o'er our heads the dewy vision bends
Delightful, melting on the fields beneath.

James Thomson.

Of all the fair months, that round the sun
In light-link'd dance their circles run,
Sweet May, shine thou for me;
For still, when thy earliest beams arise,
That youth, who beneath the blue lake lies,
Sweet May, returns to me.

Thomas Moore.

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"Unlucky are the wives that wed in May."

"May borrows ten days from March
To kill off cattle and old people."

"Weddings of May, weddings of death."

AERIAL INSTRUMENTS

"If the barometer and thermometer both rise together,
It is a sure sign of coming fair weather."

The invention of the thermometer and barometer by Galileo, about the year 1600, marked the beginning of accurate meteorology and of the scientific investigation of the atmosphere.

Thermometer from the Greek, meaning "heat-measurer,” is an instrument for determining the temperatures of bodies.

There are several kinds in which the scale of figures is made differently. That commonly used in the United States and Great Britain is called Fahrenheit's thermometer, because it was brought into use by a man of that name, in Holland, about 1720; the freezing point is marked 32 and the boiling point 212. In the Centigrade thermometer, which is used on the continent, the freezing point is 0, and the boiling point 100 degrees.

The barometer, which was really invented by Torricelli, a pupil of Galileo, is used in determining the pressure of the atmosphere. It is the simplest sort of an instrument, but of the greatest use in all kinds of scientific work.

The greatest fault of the mercurial instrument is the difficulty of transporting it without breakage, and without destroying the vacuum in the upper part of the tube by the admission of airbubbles.

The aneroid barometer, although not nearly so accurate as the .nercurial instrument, possesses the advantage of portability, since, as its name signifies, it does not contain any liquid. It consists of a round, metallic, air-tight vacuum case, somewhat like a watch,

the lid of which, held by metallic springs inside, rises and falls by the pressure of the atmosphere. By some simple machinery, this rise and fall is made to turn the pointers on the index from "Fair' to "Change, "Storm" to "Cyclones" and "Tempests" as the conditions may be.

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The barometer falls lower for high winds than for heavy rain.

"When the glass falls low,
Prepare for a blow;
When it rises high,
Let all your kites fly."

The Weather Bureau stations, besides being equipped with mercurial barometers, thermometers, wind-vanes, rain and snow-gages, also use the anemometer, an instrument which counts off each mile of wind; the sunshine recorder, which automatically registers the duration of sunshine; the barograph, which is continuously registering on paper the weight or pressure of the air; and other devices which furnish a record of the local weather conditions and changes as they occur.

If the station is provided with a telethermograph, the visitor will be surprised by the ingenious mechanism employed in this instrument, which transmits from the roof down to the office the report of the temperature of the outside air from minute to minute, and from day to day.

OPINIONS

JUNE

God offers us yearly a necklace of twelve pearls; most men choose the fairest, label it June, and cast the rest away.

Thomas Wentworth Higginson.

June steps forth in all her glory,
June, the queen of all the year,
June, the theme of song and story,
June, the bringer of good cheer;
Garlanded with full-blown flowers,
Dressed in green of many shades,
With her sunshine warm and balmy,
Flooding meadows, vales, and glades.

Who loves not more the night of June
Than cold December's gloomy noon!

Selected.

Sir Walter Scott.

Mine are the longest days, the loveliest nights,
The mower's scythe makes music to my ear;

I am the Mother of all fair delights;

I am the fairest daughter of the year.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Sweet breeze! thou only, if I guess aright,
Liftest the feathers of the robin's breast,
That swells its little breast, so full of song,
Singing above me, on the mountain-ash.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

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