_From Sir H. Davy's Salmonia; or, Days of Fly-fishing.
(In Conversations.)_
POIETES, a Tyro in Fly-fishing.--PHYSICUS, an uninitiated
Angler, fond of inquiries in natural history, &c.--HALIEUS,
an accomplished fly-fisher.--ORNITHER, a sporting gentleman.
_Poietes_. I hope we shall have another good day to-morrow, for
the clouds are red in the west.
_Physicus_. I have no doubt of it, for the red has a tint of
purple.
_Halieus_. Do you know why this tint portends fine weather?
_Phys_. The air, when dry, I believe, refracts more red, or
heat-making rays; and as dry air is not perfectly transparent, they
are again reflected in the horizon. I have generally observed a
coppery or yellow sun-set to foretell rain; but, as an indication of
wet weather approaching, nothing is more certain than a halo round
the moon, which is produced by the precipitated water; and the
larger the circle, the nearer the clouds, and consequently the more
ready to fall.
_Hal_. I have often observed that the old proverb is correct--
A rainbow in the morning is the shepherd's warning:
A rainbow at night is the shepherd's delight.
Can you explain this omen?
_Phys_. A rainbow can only occur when the clouds containing or
depositing the rain are opposite to the sun,--and in the evening the
rainbow is in the east, and in the morning in the west; and as our
{35} heavy rains in this climate are usually brought by the westerly
wind, a rainbow in the west indicates that the bad weather is on the
road, by the wind, to us; whereas the rainbow in the east proves
that the rain in these clouds is passing from us.
_Poiet_. I have often observed, that when the swallows fly
high, fine weather is to be expected or continued; but when they fly
low, and close to the ground, rain is almost surely approaching. Can
you account for this?
_Hal_. Swallows follow the flies and gnats, and flies and gnats
usually delight in warm strata of air; and as warm air is lighter,
and usually moister, than cold air, when the warm strata of air are
high, there is less chance of moisture being thrown down from them
by the mixture with cold air; but when the warm and moist air is
close to the surface, it is almost certain that, as the cold air
flows down into it, a deposition of water will take place.
_Poiet_. I have often seen sea-gulls assemble on the land, and
have almost always observed that very stormy and rainy weather was
approaching. I conclude that these animals, sensible of a current of
air approaching from the ocean, retire to the land to shelter
themselves from the storm.
_Ornither_. No such thing. The storm is their element; and the
little petrel enjoys the heaviest gale, because, living on the
smaller sea-insects, he is sure to find his food in the spray of a
heavy wave--and you may see him flitting above the edge of the
highest surge. I believe that the reason of this migration of
sea-gulls, and other sea-birds, to the land, is their security of
finding food; and they may be observed, at this time, feeding
greedily on the earth-worms and larva, driven out of the ground by
severe floods: and the fish, on which they prey in fine weather in
the sea, leave the surface and go deeper in storms. The search after
food is the principal cause why animals change their places. The
different tribes of the wading birds always migrate when rain is
about to take place; and I remember once, in Italy, having been long
waiting, in the end of March, for the arrival of the double snipe in
the Campagna of Rome, a great flight appeared on the 3rd of April,
and the day after heavy rain set in, which greatly interfered with
my sport. The vulture, upon the same principle, follows armies; and
I have no doubt that the augury of the ancients was a good deal
founded upon the observation of the instincts of birds. There are
many superstitions of the vulgar owing to the same source. For
anglers, in spring, it is always unlucky to see single magpies,--but
two may be always regarded as a favourable omen; and the reason is,
that in cold and stormy weather, one magpie alone leaves the nest in
search of food, the other remaining sitting upon the eggs or the
young ones; but when two go out together, it is only when the
weather is warm and mild, and favourable for fishing.
_Poiet_. The singular connexions of causes and effects, to
which you have just referred, make superstition less to be wondered
at, particularly amongst the vulgar; and when two facts naturally
unconnected, have been accidentally coincident, it is not singular
that this coincidence should have been observed and registered, and
that omens of the most absurd kind should be trusted in. In the west
of England, half a century ago, a particular hollow noise on the
sea-coast was referred to a spirit or goblin, called Bucca, and was
supposed to foretell a shipwreck: the philosopher knows that sound
travels much faster than currents in the air, and the sound always
foretold the approach of a very heavy storm, which seldom takes
place on that wild and rocky coast without a shipwreck on some part
of its extensive shores, surrounded by the Atlantic.
_Phys_. All the instances of omens you have mentioned are
founded on reason; but how can you explain such absurdities as
Friday being an unlucky day, the terror of spilling salt, or meeting
an old woman? I knew a man of very high dignity, who was exceedingly
moved by these omens, and who never went out shooting without a
bittern's claw fastened to his button-hole by a riband, which he
thought ensured him good luck.
_Poiet_. These, as well as the omens of death-watches, dreams,
&c., are for the most part founded upon some accidental
coincidences; but spilling of salt, on an uncommon occasion, may, as
I have known it, arise from a disposition to apoplexy, shown by an
incipient numbness in the hand, and may be a fatal symptom; and
persons, dispirited by bad omens, sometimes prepare the way for evil
fortune; for confidence in success is a great means of ensuring it.
The dream of Brutus, before the field of Pharsalia, probably
produced a species of irresolution and despondency, which was the
principal cause of his losing the battle: and I have heard that the
illustrious sportsman to whom you referred just now, was always
observed to shoot ill, because he shot carelessly, after one of his
dispiriting omens.
_Hal_. I have in life met with a few {36} things which I found
it impossible to explain, either by chance coincidences or by
natural connexions; and I have known minds of a very superior class
affected by them,--persons in the habit of reasoning deeply and
profoundly.
_Phys_. In my opinion, profound minds are the most likely to
think lightly of the resources of human reason; and it is the pert,
superficial thinker, who is generally strongest in every kind of
unbelief. The deep philosopher sees chains of causes and effects so
wonderfully and strangely linked together, that he is usually the
last person to decide upon the impossibility of any two series of
events being independent of each other; and in sciences, so many
natural miracles, as it were, have been brought to light,--such as
the fall of stones from meteors in the atmosphere, the disarming of
a thunder-cloud by a metallic point, the production of fire from ice
by a metal white as silver, and referring certain laws of motion of
the sea to the moon,--that the physical inquirer is seldom disposed
to assert, confidently, on any abstruse subjects belonging to the
order of natural things, and still less so on those relating to the
more mysterious relations of moral events and intellectual natures.
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