84 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



wind of the eastern portion of the North American continent, 

 and to the northeast wind of Western Europe. The velocity 

 of the north wind is usually about 25 miles per hour, but fre- 

 quently for days together it moves at the rate of 30 to 45 

 miles. The average velocity of the east-northeast wind is 

 about 38 miles an hour, sometimes rising however to hurri- 

 cane violence. The southeast wind seldom moves with a less 

 velocity than 25 miles, and frequently rises to 70 miles, but 

 averaging about 35. The southwest wind averages from 30 

 to 35 miles, occasionally rising to 70 miles. The greatest 

 precipitation measured seldom exceeds 0.4 of an inch daily. 

 On a large number of the days marked as rainy scarcely 0.1 

 of an inch foils. By far the greater amount of precipitation 

 during the winter months is in the form of snow drifting im- 

 mediately into the sea. The rain-drops are of comparatively 

 small size. The hail is generally sleet. The storms prevail- 

 ing during winter are divided into those coming from the 

 west-northwest and those from the southwest; the former 

 occur at any season of the year, but more frequently in the 

 later months of winter; the southwest storms are those 

 which impart to this sea its tempestuous climate; they as- 

 sume their greatest frequency in November; their real ori- 

 gin appears to be in the China seas ; their precipitation is 

 frequently light, on account of the fineness of the rain or snow. 

 In the southwest storms the barometric fall is proportioned 

 to the rapidity of the approach, and storms of this class, are 

 of comparatively brief duration. After a number of obser- 

 vations on cirrus clouds at an extreme altitude, Sergeant 

 Fish abandons, for the present, any attempt to demonstrate 

 the possibility of a steady west-northwest current at great 

 altitudes. The atmospheric conditions over Behring's Sea are 

 particularly favorable for tracing auroral relations to storms. 

 The aurora, whenever it appears, is of but very moderate in- 

 tensity, and only under certain conditions is it visible at all, 

 even through the clearest skies. The cloudiness, although 

 extreme, is yet so frequently broken that but few nights pass 

 without rifts in the direction of the magnetic meridian. 

 Scarcely a single storm has passed the island during the win- 

 ter unaccompanied by the appearance of auroral light. When 

 the display appears through a sky free from upper clouds, 

 Sergeant Fish states that he invariably anticipates the ap- 



