1383. Regarding the uses of clouds, Dr. Prout says, 'they are one great means by which water is transported from seas find oceans, to be deposited far inland where water otherwise would never reach. Clouds also greatly mitigate the extremes of temperature. By day they shield vegetation from the scorching influence of the solar heat; by night, the earth, wrapt in its mantle of clouds, is enabled to retain that heat which would otherwise radiate into space; and is thus protected from the opposite influence of the nocturnal cold. These benefits arising from clouds are most felt in countries without the tropics, which are most liable to the extremes of temperature. Lastly, whether we contemplate clouds with respect to their form, their colour, their numerous modifications, or, more than all, their incessant state of change, they prove a source of never-failing interest, and may be classed among the most beautiful objects in nature.' (See Hutchison's Meteorological Phenomena, p. 178.)
