by Signal Service observers at several stations of the Signal Service.
Also table showing the wet and dry winds of each district for each month
of the year, with a district map showing the geographical boundaries of
the districts used in the preparation of weather indications of the
Signal Service.
I am very respectfully, your obedient servant,
H. H. C. DUNWOODY,
_First Lieutenant, Fourth Artillery, A. S. O. and Assistant_.
The CHIEF SIGNAL OFFICER, U. S. A.,
_Washington, D. C._
_CIRCULAR CALLING FOR REPORTS OF POPULAR WEATHER SAYINGS._
WAR DEPARTMENT,
OFFICE OF THE CHIEF SIGNAL OFFICER,
_Washington City_, —— —, 188–.
DEAR SIR: It is the purpose of this office to make a collection of the
popular weather proverbs and prognostics used throughout the country and
by all classes and races of people, including Indians, negroes, and all
foreigners. In order to facilitate this work the accompanying questions
have been prepared and distributed. If you will kindly lend your
assistance in this work I shall be greatly obliged, and if the reports
are numerous enough to warrant their printing you shall be furnished
with a copy of the paper.
Please write the answers to the questions on the lines provided for that
purpose, _and number the answers to correspond with the numbers of the
questions answered_. Please add such other information bearing on the
subject as you may have. When possible please give the origin and
history of the saying or proverb.
Yours, very respectfully,
W. B. HAZEN,
_Brig. & Bvt. Maj. Gen’l, Chief Signal Officer,
U. S. A._
1. Proverbs relating to the sun.
2. Proverbs relating to the moon. (New moon, change of moon, halo around
the moon, influence of moon on agricultural operations, change of moon
on days of week, &c.)
3. Proverbs relating to stars and meteors.
4. Proverbs relating to rainbows.
5. Proverbs relating to mist and fog.
6. Proverbs relating to dew.
7. Proverbs relating to clouds.
8. Proverbs relating to frost.
9. Proverbs relating to snow.
10. Proverbs relating to rain. (Morning, midnight, rain from particular
quarter, rain during squalls.)
11. Proverbs relating to thunder and lightning. (First thunder in the
year, thunder from the west, north, east, south; lightning west, north,
northwest, south, southwest, and east.)
12. Proverbs relating to winds. (Day, night, morning, evening; wind and
rain, wind preceding fair weather, cold winds, direction of winds, north
wind, northeast wind, northwest wind, south wind, east wind, west winds,
wet wind, veering winds, backing winds.)
13. Prognostics from the actions of animals. (Bats, oxen, cats, dogs,
goats, hares, rabbits, horses, mice, moles, pigs, rats, sheep, weasels,
wolves, frogs.)
14. Prognostics from birds. (Blackbirds, cranes, cuckoos, ducks,
finches, fowls, chickens, geese, guinea fowl, gulls, kingfishers, kites,
larks, migratory birds, owls, peacocks, pigeons, quails, robins, rooks,
snipe, sparrows, swallows, swans, thrushes, wild geese, woodpeckers,
wrens.)
15. Prognostics from fish. (Carp, dolphin, pike, porpoise, trout, shad,
herring, mackerel, cod, blue-fish, lobsters, crabs.)
16. Prognostics from reptiles. (Frogs, glow-worms, leeches, snails,
snakes, toads, worms.)
17. Prognostics from insects. (Ants, bees, beetles, crickets, flies,
gnats, lady-birds, spiders, wasps.)
18. Prognostics from trees, plants, &c. (Brambles, brooms, chickweed,
clover, colts-foot, dandelions, ferns, fir-cones, hawthorne, marigolds,
mushrooms, oak, onions, pear, apple, roses, sea-weed, sensitive-plants,
thistles, walnuts, wood-sorrel, chaff, leaves, &c.)
19. Prognostics of the weather drawn from various objects. (Chairs,
tables cracked before rain, &c., coals burning brightly, corns, ditches,
doors, dust, lamps, rheumatism, salt, seed, sign-boards, smoke, soup,
sound, strings, toothache, walls.)
20. Proverbs relating to days of the week. (Weather and agricultural
rules.)
21. Proverbs relating to each month of the year. (January, February,
March, &c.)
22. Proverbs relating to the seasons of the year. (Spring, autumn, &c.)
23. Proverbs of weather relating to the year.
24. Proverbs of weather and popular sayings relating thereto, not
included in the answers to the above questions.