ASTRONOMY AND METEOROLOGY. 353 



cates wind ; a pale yellow, wet; a neutral gray color constitutes 

 a favorable sign in the morning. TJie clouds are again fall of 

 meaning in themselves. If their forms are soft, undefined, and 

 full feathery, the weather will be fine ; if their edges are hard, 

 sharp, and definite, it will be foul. Generally speaking, any deep, 

 unusual hues betoken wind or rain ; while the more quiet and del- 

 icate tints bespeak fair weather. These are simple maxims, and 

 yet not so simple but that the British Board of Trade has thought 

 fit to publish them for the use of sea-faring men. 



The Climate of Southland, New Zealand — The chief point of inter- 

 est noticed by ]\Ir. Marten, treating of the climate generally, is 

 the remarkable example it affords of a rule long suspected to exist, 

 and which the experience of each successive year seems mf)re fully 

 to establish. " Comparing the meteorological records of the tem- 

 perate zone in the two hemispheres, I was struck with the fact that 

 the meteoroloo'ical characteristics of each season in the northern 

 hemisphere were invariably reproduced in the following year at all 

 jjlaces similar in geographical and isothermal position and natural 

 features in the southern hemisphere. The question naturally 

 arises, ' Is this mere coincidence ? ' That, of course, I cannot 

 answer decisively ; but my imiJressious are in the negative." 



Meteorological Ferturbaiions . — According to a paper recently 

 laid before the Royal Geographical Society of Vienna by Dr. Fried- 

 man of Munich, the meteorological perturbations are due to 

 " contact of the external air with the interior of the earth ! " His 

 reasoning is in this wise : According to Humboldt, there exist 425 

 volcanoes, of which 207 are still active. The external atmosj^here 

 is thus connected with the interior of the earth by 207 fiery throats. 

 It may be assumed that of these 207 volcanoes there is at least one 

 eruption daily, which thus causes important disturbances in the 

 upper layers, of the atmosphere. These movements being propa- 

 gated in a wave-like manner to a distance, produce the irregular- 

 ities in meteorological i^henomena for which so many explana- 

 tions have been proposed. 



The Appearance of the Sun from the North Pole. — To a person 

 standing at the north pole, the sun appears to sweep horizontally 

 around the sky every twenty-four liours, without any perceptible 

 variation during its circuit in its distance from the horizon. On 

 the 21st of June, it is 23 degrees and 38 minutes above the horizon, 

 — a little more than one-fourth of tlie distance to the zenith, the 

 highest point it ever reaches. From this altitude it slowly de- 

 scends, its track being represented by a spiral or screw with a 

 very fine thread ; and in the course of three mouths it worms its 

 \fa,j down to the horizon, which it reaches on the 23d of Sep- 

 tember. On this day it slowly sweeps ai'ound the sky, with its 

 face half hidden below the icy sea. It still continues to descend ; 

 and, after it has entirely disaj^peared, it is still so near the horizon 

 that it carries a bright twilight around the heavens in its daily 

 circuit. As the sun sinks lower and lower, this twilight grows 

 gradually fainter till it fades away. On the 20th of Decemljer the 

 sun is 23 degrees and 38 minutes below the horizon, and this is 

 the midnight of the dark winter of the pole. From this date the 

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