If there be a damp fog or mist, accompanied by wind, expect rain.

With dew before midnight,

The next day will sure be bright.
When clouds are on the hills
They'll come down by the mills.

A sunflower raising its head indicates rain.

When bees remain in their hives or fly but a short distance, expect rain. Wasps in great numbers and busy indicate fair and warm weather.

Plant garden beans when the sign is in the scales; they will hang full.

THE SOLAR SYSTEM-Continued.

Uranus.

The planet Uranus is rather more than nineteen times as far from the sun as is the earth, and four and one-half times its diameter. His orbit is approxi mately circular, and nearly coincident with the ecliptic. His year is equivalent to 84 of our years, and he has a velocity in his orbit of only 4% miles in a second. Uranus has four satellites.

Neptune.

The last planet of our system, Neptune, is distant from the sun three hundred times that of the earth, with a diameter 51⁄2 times greater-slightly larger than Uranus. Neptune has one satellite, moving, like those of Uranus, in a retrograde direction, in an orbit inclined 35° to the ecliptic. His year is equivalent to 165 of our years, and velocity in orbit a little more than three miles a second.

Not much is known as to the physical appearance of these two planets, owing to the apparent smallness of disc, in consequence of their great distance from the earth. For the same reason their periods of rotation are not certainly known. Of the conditions to which the planets are exposed, owing to their distance from the sun and the possible effect any atmospheres they may have would produce on their temperature, we know but little. To Mercury the sun would appear seven times larger in area than to the earth, while to Neptune only 16 The temperature in Mercury, we should imagine, would be extremely high, and that on Neptune nearly equal to the temperature of interstellar space-nearly 600° Fahrenheit below the freezing point of water. The internal heat of a planet may be so much greater than that of the earth, and its atmosphere so dense as to prevent in a great measure the radiation of the internal heat into space, that the temperatures of both interior and exterior planets may not be so widely different as would be the case if they depended solely on the sun's distance. It is probable that Jupiter is still very hot, and, like Saturn, has an extensive atmosphere.

Comets.

Besides the planets, there are some other very interesting bodies which belong to the solar system, and others which visit us now and again without warning; these are comets.

Comets revolving around the sun in comparatively limited periods are not numerous, but our knowledge of them is constantly becoming more accurate. The "giant planet" Jupiter has a whole family of comets more or less under his sway, the most remote part of their orbits lying near his path, and consequently being influenced by his vast attractive power. These small periodical comets, revolving around the sun in periods from 3 to 9 years, deserve special notice, as their orbits are well known and predictions of their apparitions fairly accurate.

The majority of the short-period comets extend their flights to a little distance outside the orbit of Jupiter, and approach the sun to about the average distance of Mars. It appears that though new comets of short period are being introduced by means of planetary perturbations (Jupiter being mainly responsible), there are others which meet with disturbances sufficiently powerful to endanger, and sometimes terminate, their visible existence. Biela's double has not reappeared during the last half a century, and its material seems to have been distributed into a stream of November shooting stars.

The great majority of the periodic comets move in orbits in the same direction as the planets, but of those that move in very long eclipses, or parabolas, about two-thirds have a retrograde (westerly) motion.

The tails seem to be formed by jets thrown out towards the sun, which appear to curve back and so form the tail. In the life of a comet this tail appears to undergo very rapid and curious changes.

Meteors.

Meteors, fireballs or falling stars are visible in varying number on every night of the year and are sometimes so abundant as to form impressive showers. There were brilliant and plentiful displays of the November meteors, called Leonids, in the years 1799, 1833, 1866, 1867, 1868, and less striking exhibitions of the same objects in 1901 and 1903. It is not to be expected, however, that this particular system of falling stars will again show itself prominently until the years 1933 to 1937. The meteors return numerously every 33% years, but it appears that just before their last visit the planet Jupiter disturbed their orbit so much that the main collection of meteors was enabled to avoid encountering the earth, and the observed showers were more scanty than usual.

Highest Flood Tide October 19, 20, 21, 22, P. M., 1.6 ft.

Warm in October, cold February.

Three days of September (20, 21, 22) rule the weather for October, November and December.

Spiders strengthening their webs indicate rain.

When deer are in gray coat in October, expect a severe winter.

Full moon in October without frost, no frost till full moon in November.

THE SOLAR SYSTEM-Continued.

The Stars.

Far beyond the confines of the solar system we come to the stars, apparently scattered about without any particular plan. We note also that "one star differeth from another star in glory."

In early times the stars were grouped into constellations, named after a fanci ful resemblance to some animal or mythological personage, the individual stars in the group being distinguished by the letters of the Greek alphabet, in order of brightness.

Although the stars generally shine with uniform brightness, there are among them some remarkable exceptions to this general rule. The earliest known, and the most remarkable amongst this class of stars, is one situated in the constellation Cetus and known by the name of Mira Ceti. It has a period of nearly 331.6 days; that is to say, it goes through its cycle of variations in that length of time, continuing for about twelve or fourteen days at its maximum brightness, which has, at some of its maxima, reached to the second order of magnitude; it then goes on decreasing for some three months until it becomes invisible, in which condition it remains for five more months, when it again goes on increasing to the end of the period, when the maximum is again reached; but the order of magnitude is not always the same at successive maxima. The month of October is the best time for observing it. Quite recent observations seem to show that this star has now settled down to the 8th magnitude, after having exhausted its changes of magnitude.

Many of the so-called fixed stars are gradually changing their position in space and are said to have a proper motion, part of which is due to the motion of our star, the sun, moving with all the planets, through space, towards a point in the constellation Hercules. There are also many cases among the stars of binary systems, where we find two stars close together, one of which describes an orbit round the other; these appear as one star to the naked eye, being too near together to be distinguished apart, some so close as to be hardly separated from the rays of the larger star. The orbital periods of many of these have been well determined. The distance from the earth to the nearest star is so great that it can only be referred to in terms of the velocity of light, which in round numbers amounts to 186,000 miles per second; moving with this enormous velocity, it would require four years and four months to reach the earth, so that we see the star as it was that much earlier.

MORNING AND EVENING STARS.

It is not only the planet Venus to which pre-eminently the character of a morning or evening star is attached, but all the planets that are at all visible to the naked eye may act in both capacities. The inferior stars Mercury and Venus act as morning stars from their inferior to their superior conjunction, while the superior planets Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, not to mention Uranus and Neptune, which are too distant to be seen with the unaided eye, act as morning stars from their conjunction to their opposition with the sun, and as evening stars from opposition to conjunction. The duration of their shining in either capacity depends upon the synodic period, which is the time between the successive conjunctions of the planet with the sun, as seen from the earth. Of all the planets Mars has the longest synodic period, viz, very nearly 780 days. The least latitude in which, at the time of the summer solstice, twilight lasts all night is 48° 33'.

THE HARVEST MOON.

If the plane of the moon's orbit coincided with that of the earth's equator, the moon would rise about fifty minutes later each day; but, owing to the inclination between these planes to one another, this retardation is quite different at different times. This retardation may be reduced to nothing when in the northern latitude full moon occurs near the autumnal equinox, so that for several nights the full moon rises about the same time, soon after sunset. At or about the time of harvest in the northern temperate zone the sun in its annual course is approaching the celestial equator, which it crosses from north to south on September 22. On that date it sets close to the exact western point of the horizon. If it happens to be also full moon, the moon rises that evening as the sun sets, or close to the exact eastern point of the horizon. Thus it begins to give light at sunset, and continues to do so until sunrise, when it sets opposite the sun, just as the latter rises. This arrangement holds good without any great change for several days, so that there is practically no darkness, especially if the weather is fine. The full moon which thus illumines the autumn night is called the harvest moon. The hunter's moon is the next full moon after the harvest moon; the same phenomenon, less marked, occurs.

10 41

11 48

9 33 4 4 9 33 10 51
4 56 10 3311 42
5 46 11 40.

6 35 12 34 12 50

12 56

2

7 8 10

2 19 2 58

3 19 8 59

3 10 3 55

4 31 9 51

4 14 48

5 4210 47

4 495 41

Sets 11 48

5 37 6 33

5 1312 52

6 26 7 25

16 Mo. 6 51 11 51 114 51 17 Tu. 6 5211 51 224 51 18 W. 6 5311 51 344 50 19Th. 6 5411 51 464 49 20 Fr. 6 5511 52 04 48 21 Sa. 6 5611 52 144 47 22 Sun 6 5711 52 294 47 23 Mo. 6 5911 52 454 46 24 Tu. 7 011 53 24 46 25 W. 7 111 53 204 45 26 Th. 7 211 53 384 45 27 Fr. 311 53 574 45 28 Sa. 411 54 164 44

Alpheratz S. 9 21 P.M.

stat. h rises 8 11 P.M. Caph S. 9 13 P.M. Algenib (y Peg.) S. 9 14 PM Tr'sit of Mer.par.vis. Bal. stat. oh. h-5°34′ 22d Sunday after Trinity

C

+3°11' Deneb Ceti S. 9 49 P.M. Deneb Caitos S. 9 20 P.M.

7 22 1 27 157 in Perih. ❤ S. 4 53 A.M.
Mirach S. 9 38 P.M.
Aldebaran S. 1 A.M.
23d Sunday after Trinity
stat. C. +7°11'
Algol S.11 20. [♂+4°38′
C. 9+1°7. α ♂ C

6 15 1 58 7 17 8 17 Betelgeuze rises 7 36 P.M.
7 23 3 2 8 9 9 10 Capella S. 1 16 A.M.
8 40 4 19 610 1♂♂

9-2°44′

9 49 4 54 10 710 52 24th Sunday after Trinity 11 15 5 42 11 1211 44 ♂C 2+0°28′ 11 59 6 26 .... 12 21 Schedir S. 8 26 P.M. 12 50 7 7 12 33 1 38 Markab sets 1 35 A.M. 12 58 7 47 1 22 2 31 Fomalhaut sets 2 25 A.M. 1 57 8 27 2 9 3 26 O Inf. h S. 1 48 A.M. 2 54 4 14 Rigel rises 8 10 P.M. 1st Sunday in Advent St. Andrew. Sirius rises 9 3

7

7

2 55 9 8

3 54 9 50

4 5310 36

3 36 4 59
4 18 5 40

Highest Flood Tide November 17, 18, 19, P. M., 1.7 ft.

If there be ice in November that will bear a duck,
There will be nothing thereafter but sleet and muck.
You may shear your sheep

When the elder blossoms peep.

If the cock moult before the hen
We shall have weather thick and thin;
But if the hen moult before the cock

We shall have weather hard as a block,