ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 393 



SNOW PHENOMENA. 



PROF. DOVE, of Berlin, in a recent publication on meteorology, gives 

 a curious illustration in relation to the formation of clouds of snow over 

 plains, which are situated at a distance from the cooling summits of 

 mountains. On one occasion a large assembly had gathered in the 

 concert hall of a northern residence. It was one of those icy, starlight 

 nights, which are so aptly called " iron nights " in Sweden. In the 

 room, however, there was a fearful crowd ; and the heat was so great 

 that several ladies fainted in consequence. An officer who was pres- 

 ent sought to end this distressing state of things by attempting to open 

 a window ; but this was impossible, so hard was it frozen to the sill. 

 As a last resort, he broke a pane of glass ; and now what happened ? 

 It snowed hi the room ! It is needless to add any comment on this, as 

 the phenomena explains itself. 



CUKIOrS METEOROLOGICAL FACT. 



IT will be recollected that in January and February of the year 

 1851, the changes of the barometer were very frequent, and the eleva- 

 tion in New England greater than had been noticed for twelve years. 

 On the 19th of January, the barometer at Portsmouth, N. H., rose to 

 30.83 ; on the morning of the 13th of February to 31 inches ; and to 

 the same height on the 19th of February. The Boston Traveller, of 

 February 14th , gives the following notice of the remarkable state of the 

 barometer that week : 



" The barometer, Thursday morning, February 13, at nine o'clock, 

 attained the extraordinary altitude of 31.02, reduced to the tempera- 

 ture of 50, and to the mean level of the sea. This is the third extraor- 

 dinary condensation of the atmosphere in this vicinity, within the last 

 three and a half weeks, and as such, we believe, unprecedented even 

 here, where the barometer is believed to rise as high as in any other 



?art of the earth. The last time it rose to 31 inches was on January 

 , 1839, viz., to 31.11, which is supposed to have been the highest 

 recorded at any place at the above level." 



Advices received subsequently from India show that, at the same 

 time, within a day of the greatest elevation of the barometer here, 

 there was the lowest depression in India. Here it was three days 

 rising to the maximum, there it was three days sinking to the mini- 

 mum. The Bombay Times, of March 3d, says: "A remarkable 

 instance of atmospheric disturbance, of simultaneous occurrence over a 

 vast region of space, and which will, in all likelihood, have been ob- 

 served in Europe, occurred on the 12th of February. On this day the 

 barometer reached its minimum at Bombay and Calcutta, 1,200 miles 

 apart, after a synchronous descent of three days ; it continued to fall 

 at Madras till the 16th." Violent storms and floods prevailed all over 

 India about this time, doing immense damage in various quarters, es- 

 pecially in the Punjaub. 



From the foregoing statement it will appear that sympathetic undu- 

 lations of the barometer sometimes extend around the world ; in this 

 case a converse change taking place at the same epoch in the opposite 

 hemisphere. 



