7143. RAINBOWS AT MONTICELLO.—
I remark a rainbow of a great portion of
the circle observed by you when on the line of
demarcation. I live in a situation which has
given me an opportunity of seeing more than the
semicircle often. I am on a hill five hundred
feet perpendicularly high. On the east side it
breaks down abruptly to the base, where a river
passes through. A rainbow, therefore, about
sunset, plunges one of its legs down to the river,
five hundred feet below the level of the eye on
the top of the hill.—
To William Dunbar. Washington ed. iv, 348.
Ford ed., vii, 482.
(W.
Jan. 1801)