Wrangell Island 



clear. According to a record kept here of a hundred 

 and forty-seven days beginning May 17 of that year, 

 there were sixty-five on which rain fell, forty-three 

 cloudy with no rain, and thirty-nine clear. In June 

 rain fell on eighteen days, in July eight days, in Au- 

 gust fifteen days, in September twenty days. But on 

 some of these days there was only a few minutes' rain, 

 light showers scarce enough to count, while as a gen- 

 eral thing the rain fell so gently and the temperature 

 was so mild, very few of them could be called stormy 

 or dismal; even the bleakest, most bedraggled of 

 them all usually had a flush of late or early color to 

 cheer them, or some white illumination about the 

 noon hours. I never before saw so much rain fall with 

 so little noise. None of the summer winds make roar- 

 ing storms, and thunder is seldom heard. I heard none 

 at all. This wet, misty weather seems perfectly health- 

 ful. There is no mildew in the houses, as far as I have 

 seen, or any tendency toward mouldiness in nooks 

 hidden from the sun; and neither among the people 

 nor the plants do we find anything flabby or dropsical. 



In September clear days were rare, more than three 

 fourths of them were either decidedly cloudy or rainy, 

 and the rains of this month were, with one wild 

 exception, only moderately heavy, and the clouds 

 between showers drooped and crawled in a ragged, 

 unsettled way without betraying hints of violence 

 such as one often sees in the gestures of mountain 

 storm-clouds. 



July was the brightest month of the summer, with 

 fourteen days of sunshine, six of them in uninter- 



[41] 



