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5 east side,and the sun on the west side of the balloon, and it was late in the afternoon. That such was its cause, is inferred from the fact that prismatic circles of light had appeared in the upper cloud surface, when the sun's rays passed through the gas of the balloon when sailing above it. This phenomenon only occurred with a silken balloon - silk becomes transparent where varnished-cotton does not. A silken balloon is also more susceptible of electrical excitement than is one of cotton. A silken flag crepitates in passing from one current of air into another, a phenomenon not perceptible in a cotton one. Storm clouds do not all discharge thunderbolts. When a certain field space of atmosphere contains a number of these, and I have seen seven at one time, small ones, they deposit rain, in fitful showers, but discharge no thunderbolts. When two or more of them coalesce, then discharges of electricity follow. These detached nimbus clouds are prevalent in the month of april and may, and produce what we term "april showers." During the heat of summer the thundergust proper prevails. Its constant attendant is heat. We all know this from common experience, the precedent suffocating heat before a thundergust. When these meteors are generated suddenly they give out, snow, hail, and rain. The snow melts, partly into hail, and partly into rain. Hail stones contain in their centre, a nucleus of snow. In rising up from the earth the deposition from a cloud grows diffuse, more and more, until you enter the base of the cloud, where it is a dense mist; and as you rise in the cloud this mist becomes thinner, until near the top when it ceases entirely; at this point the cloud becomes warm; and when emerging from its top still warmer, caused by radiation and reflection; and then follows a twinging sentation in the cuticle of the face and hands, like the pricking from bunches of needles, also slight hoarsness, with more or less pain in
