188 TRANS. OF THE ACAD. OF SCIENCE. 



He could trace it as far west as the plains of Kansas, where, in the af- 

 ternoon of October 23d. after a very pleasant morning, a most vi< lent gale 

 from the west or northwest sprang up and snow fell in the following 

 night. On the Upper Missouri, at Omaha, the snowstorm commenced, as 

 the papers stated, on the 24th, at 8 A.M. ; and on the Upper Mississippi, 

 at Dubuque, it was observed scarcely a little later. On Lake Michigan, 

 at Milwaukie, a very light fall of snow commenced at noon of the same 

 day ; further east, at Detroit, a very light snow fell at 12.30 P.M., and a 

 little more in the following night. At Sackett'a Harbor, at the eastern end 

 of Lake Ontario, the barometer indicated the acme of the wave on the 

 25th, at 9 P.M , and the snowfall commenced on the 26th, at 7.30 A.M., 

 lasting till 11 A.M. on the 27th, with 0.58 inch of melted snow— travel- 

 ling from the plains of Kansas to the lower end of Lake Ontario, about 

 24 (leg. Long., in a little more than 50 hours. It had reached St. Louis, 

 a distance of about 10 deg Long, in 24 hours. The data referring to the 

 appearance of the storm along the Lakes were received through the kind- 

 ness of Dr. Bigelow. 



In Virginia and in the District of Columbia the storm appeared in the 

 form of rain, from the 26th to the morning of the 27th. Southward, ac- 

 cording to the newspapers, the snowstorm spread over Kentucky and 

 Tennessee, appeared at Memphis about the same time as here, extended 

 into Northern Mississippi and Alabama, and on Ihe morning of October 

 26th reached Northwestern Georgia as far as Rome, nearly Lat. 34°. f 



The coldest days in October, observed by Dr. Engelmann in St. Louis, 

 were the following : 



1862, October 26 21.5 deg. 



1841, " 25 22.0 " 



1836, « 20 24.0 " 



1838, « 29 25 « 



1843, " 26 26.0 « 



1853, " 24 26.0 " 



Dr. Wislizenus gave an account of his observations of the electrical 

 state of the atmosphere during and prior to this snowstorm. On the 24th, 

 during the high wind, the electricity was at zero, indicating some great 

 change in the atmosphere. Early next morning, while it was yt snow- 

 ing, his instrument indicated a high degree (33) of positive electricity, 

 such as he usually observed during snowfalls. 



Dr. Shumard read a communication from Mr. Henry En- 

 gelmann, of the Illinois Geological Survey, on the Lower 

 Carboniferous System as developed in Southern Illinois, be- 

 ing the results of some explorations made by him in the sum- 

 mer of 1862, as follows : 



The field work of the writer during 1862 embraced one of the most in- 

 teresting portions of Illinois. It is well known that in the southwestern 

 part of the State, bordering on the Mississippi, the Lower and Upper 

 Silurian, Devonian, Chemung, Lower Carboniferous, and Coal Measure 

 formations are developed. Some interesting and heretofore undescribed 

 and unobserved facts were elicited in regard to the older formations ; but 

 as I am still engaged in the field, and the fossils have not yet been care- 



f Another remarkable snowstorm was that of November 7, 1862, which 

 does not seem to have extended farther west than Louisville, Ky., where 

 they had a light fall of snow on the night of November 6th, while we had 

 foggy and dark weather; on the Alleghanies and eastwardly to the sea- 

 coast it snowed, on the 7tb, at least from Virginia to Massachusetts. It 

 is hoped that the learned Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution will, 

 with the aid of the extensive observations sent to him from all parts of 

 the country, cause the laws of these and other storms to be investigated. 



