CORRESPONDENCE AND INFORMATION 



34* 



frequently as we came to town by 

 train, and liberated them at once where 

 their grey and yellowish color was in visible, appearing over Lake Michigan. 



read a few days ago, that in Chicago, 

 for over an hour, "Sun dogs" were 



marked contrast to the dark green of 

 the grass. 



We intended to consult the new li- 

 brary to learn about our new variety 

 of toad, but alas, on going to find them 

 toward night they were on the bare, 

 damp ground and had again become 

 plain, dark brown toads, the ordinary 

 Biifo lentiginoses. There they are 

 awaiting the flies, ants and insects in 

 general. 



Wm. L. Stowell, m.d. 



I can assure you, that the spectacle 



He Saw the "Moon Dogs." 



To the Editor: 



As per your request, I herewith send 

 }ou an illustration of the "moon dogs," 

 which I told you I had seen last year, 

 on the Atlantic Ocean. The pheno- 

 menon lasted for over one hour, chang- 

 ing at intervals, sometimes disappear- 

 ing and then reappearing. I had been 

 playing bridge, in the smoking room 

 and came out of the smoking room 

 perfectly sober, not having imbibed 

 anything else but lemonade the whole 

 day, to take a breath of fresh air be- 

 fore retiring, when I looked out over 

 the ocean, I could hardly trust my eyes, 

 as I saw five moons instead of the 

 usual one. 



Next morning, when I told my ex- 

 perience to the other passengers, they 

 had a great deal of fun at my expense 

 and wanted to know, what I had been 

 smoking in the smoking room that 

 night. I told the story the other day 

 to a few people in Stamford and they 

 also point blank assured me, that such 

 a thing was impossible, that they had 

 never seen more than one moon at a 

 time, except on special occasions, when 

 they had come home from club meet- 

 ings and altogether I had a very hard 

 time, to convince anybody, I ever 

 talked to, that what I had seen was not 

 an image of my imagination. The dif- 

 ferent moons were connected by rays 

 of light and there was a circle of light 

 connecting the four outside moons. The 

 captain next morning told me the phe- 

 nomenon was very rarely seen and was 

 called by the sailors, "moon dogs." I 



MR. UHRLAUB'S PENCIL SKETCH 

 MOON DOGS." 



( H 



"THE 



was very weird and 1 can readily im- 

 agine that savage and superstitious 

 people, would ascribe to such an appa- 

 rition, the foreboding of war, pesti- 

 lence, plague, etc., as we read, used to 

 be the case in the middle ages. 

 Sincerely yours, 



John C. Uiirlaub. 



The phenomenon is caused by the 

 refraction and reflection of the light 

 from the moon by innumerable small 

 crystals of ice or snowflakes. But as 

 a full explanation would be somewhat 



