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and refractive powers of certain clouds. For a particular account and systematic classification of all these appearances see Atmospheric Phenomena, 3d edit. p. 98.

September 8. NATALIS B. VIRGINIS MARIAE. St. Adrian. St. Sidronius. St. Adela. St. Corbinian. St. Disibode. SS. Eusebius, Zeno, &c. Martyrs.

This is a festival celebrated with great joy by the church. for the birth of the spotless, holy, beautiful, blessed, and glorious Mary. As the Lily among Thorns, so is my beloved among the daughters: thou art all fair, and there is not a spot in thee-Cant. iv. 7. I will put enmity between thee-serpent -and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel-Gen. iii. 15.

A concert of Angels having been heard in the air to solemnize this important event, the festival was appointed by Pope Servius about the year 695. Innocent IV. honoured this feast with an octave in 1244, and Gregory XI. about the yeat 1370, with a vigil.

Hierosolyma à Tito Vespasiano capta-Rom. Cal.

It is well known that Jerusalem was taken this day by Titus Vespasian, and it is a curious coincidence that it should have happened on the same day of the year as the birth of the Virgin Mary.

On this capture Milman has written some excellent lines in his Fall of Jerusalem.

Jerusalem taken by Titus.

Oh, beauty of Earth's cities! throned queen

Of thy milk flowing valleys! crowned with glory!
The envy of the nations! now no more

A city. One by one thy palaces

Sink into ashes, and the uniform smoke

O'er half thy circuit hath brought back the night,
Which the insulting flames had made give place
To their untimely terrible day. The flames

That in the Temple, their last, proudest conquest,
Now gather all their might, and furiously,
Like revellers, hold their exulting triumph,
Round every pillar, over all the roof

On the wide gorgeous front, the holy depth
Of the far sanctuary, every portico,
And every court, at once concentrated,

As though to glorify and not destroy.

CHRONOLOGY.-Butler, in his Lives of the Saints, gives an interesting account today of the siege of Vienna by the Turks in 1683.

COELUM. According to some authors Autumn begins today, see Howard's Climate of London, p. 337. We insert the following Table, showing the comparative temperature of the twelve months of the year in the Climate of London, that the reader may estimate the probabilities of heat and cold for each month:

Monthly mean Temperature for Ten Years, continued from Sept. 4,

which see.

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Description of a Grove.

Below me trees unnumbered rise,
Beautiful in various dyes;

The gloomy Pine, the Poplar blue,
The yellow Beech, the sable Yew,
The slender Fir that taper grows,

The sturdy Oak with broad spread boughs.

September 9. St. Omer Bishop and Confessor. St. Kiaran Abbot in Ireland. St. Osmanna of Ireland, Virgin. St. Bettelin Hermit and Confessor.

St. Omer, Bishop of Teronanne, in conjunction with St. Bertin, founded the town in French Flanders which now bears the name of St. Omers. See Delices des Pays Bas, vol. ii. 256.

CHRONOLOGY.

Battle of Flodden Field in 1513, in which King James IV. of Scotland was slain.

COELUM.-Although the weather is now very fine and temperate in the day, the mornings and evenings begin to be cool; and if the wind happen to get to the North or East we feel sensibly the approach of Autumn. The leaves on the trees now begin to be tinged with yellow brown.

NAIS.-About this time Herrings pay their annual visit to us, and afford a rich harvest to the inhabitants of the eastern and western coasts. We extract, from Mr. Pennant's British Zoology, the following sketch of the history of the Herring and its supposed migrations:

"The great Winter rendezvous of the Herring is within the arctic circle: there they continue many months in order to recruit themselves after the fatigue of spawning, the seas within that space swarming with insect food in a far greater degree than in our warmer latitudes.

"This mighty army begins to put itself in motion in the Spring: we distinguish this vast body by that name, for the word Herring is derived from the German, Heer, an army, to express their numbers. They begin to appear off the Shetland Isles in April and May: these are only forerunners of the grand shoal which comes in June, and their appearance is marked by certain signs, by the numbers of birds, such as Gannets and others, which follow to prey on them: but when the main body approaches, its breadth and depth is such as to alter the very appearance of the ocean. It is divided into distinct columns of five or six miles in length and three or four in breadth, and they drive the water before

them with a kind of rippling: sometimes they sink for the space of ten or fifteen minutes; then rise again to the surface, and, in bright weather, reflect a variety of splendid colours, like a field of the most precious gems.

"The first check this army meets in its march southward, is from the Shetland Isles, which divide it into two parts; one wing takes to the east, the other to the western shores of Great Britain, and fill every bay and creek with their numbers; others pass on towards Yarmouth, the great and ancient mart of Herrings; they then pass through the British channel, and, after that, in a manner disappear: those which take to the west, after offering themselves to the Hebrides, where the great stationary fishery is, proceed toward the north of Ireland, where they meet with a second interruption, and are obliged to make a second division; the one takes to the western side, and is scarce perceived, being soon lost in the immensity of the Atlantic; but the other, which passes into the Irish sea, rejoices and feeds the inhabitants of the coasts that border on it." The reality of this migration is doubted by Dr. Bloch and Dr. Shaw, concurring in opinion, that Herrings, like Mackerel, inhabit, during Winter, the deep recesses of the ocean, or plunge beneath the soft mud at the bottom.

Among the principal enemies of this fish may be numbered various species of whales, some of which are observed to pursue large shoals, and to swallow them in such quantities, that, in the stomach of a single whale, no less than six hundred Herrings are said to have been found.

September 10. St. Nicholas of Tolentino, Confessor. St. Pulcheria Virgin and Empress. St. Finian. St. Salvius. SS. Felix, Jader, and others, Martyrs.

Orises at v. 30'. and sets at vi. 30.

CHRONOLOGY.-Battle of Pinkey near Edinburgh in 1547. TEMPUS.-Of the Period called Autumn.-According to Mr. Howard Autumn commences on the 8th of this month. We think, however, that he has placed it too early in the month, and we regard Autumn as beginning today: it occupies 90 days. The mean temperature is 49.37°, or 11.29° below the Summer: the medium of the day declines in this season from 58° to 40°.

The mean height of the barometer is 29.781 inches; being .096 inches below the mean of Summer. The range

H H

increases rapidly during this season; the mean extent of it is 1.49 inches.

The prevailing winds are the class SW, throughout the

season.

The evaporation is 6.444 inches, or a sixth part less than the proportion indicated by the temperature. The mean of De Luc's hygrometer is 72 degrees.

The average rain is 7.441 inches: the proportion of rain increases, from the beginning to near the end of the season: this is the true rainy season with us; and the earth, which had become dry to a considerable depth during the Spring and Summer, now receives again the moisture required for springs, and for the more deeply rooted vegetables, in the following year.

The fore part of this season is, nevertheless, if we regard only the sky, the most delightful part of the year, in our climate. When the decomposition of vapour, from the decline of the heat, is as yet but in commencement, or while the electricity remaining in the air continues to give buoyancy to the suspended particles, a delicious calm often prevails for many days in succession, amidst a perfect sunshine, mellowed by the vaporous air, and diffusing a rich golden tint, as the day declines, upon the landscape.

At this period, chiefly, the Stratus or Fallcloud, the lowest and most singular of the modifications, comes forth in the evenings, to occupy the low plains and valleys, and shroud the Earth in a veil of mist, until revisited by the Sun. So perfectly does this inundation of suspended aqueous particles imitate real water, when viewed in the distance at break of day, that I have known the country people themselves deceived by its unexpected appearance.

A phenomenon attends this state of the air, too remarkable to be passed over in silence. An immense swarm of small Spiders take advantage of the moisture, to carry on their operations, in which they are so industrious, that the whole country is soon covered with the fruit of their labours, in the form of a fine network, commonly called Gossamer. They appear exceedingly active in pursuit of the small insects, which the cold of the night now brings down; and commence this fishery about the time that the Swallows give it up, and quit our shores. Their manner of locomotion is curious: half volant, half aeronaut, the little creature darts from the papillae on his rump a number of fine threads which float in the air. Mounted thus in the breeze, he glides off with a quick motion of the legs, which seem to serve the purpose of wings, for moving in any particular direction. As these Spiders rise to a considerable height, in very fine

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