3o8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



familiar halo, can not be overlooked. It is the timely omen of imj^end- 

 ing disturbance, delivering its faithful warning long before the barometer 

 begins to fall and tell its confirmatory tale. The accompanying cloud- 

 illustrations, constructed, with some variations, after Mr. Ley's designs, 

 will illustrate the chief weather-changes. Fig. 1 represents cirrus and 

 cirro-stratus forming far in front of a cyclone, while yet the barometer 

 has not begun to fall decidedly. Fig. 2 shows the cloud-system attend- 

 ing one of our storm -centers, as viewed from a point say 25,000 feet 

 high (above the disturbance), the whole system borne along in the 

 broad, horizontal " antitrade-wind " belt, from southwest to northeast, 

 the scale of miles 200 to the inch, and the rate of progress fifteen miles 

 an hour. 



Could the rural populations and those whose occupation calls them 

 much out of doors be assisted in interpreting these and similar phenom- 

 ena, however untutored they might be in meteorologic terms and the- 

 ories, they would soon learn to forecast many of the great weather- 

 changes for themselves. But as the storm-signaling clouds, conspicu- 

 ous to all, fly aloft in those mighty " upper currents " which, observation 

 shows, attain not uncommonly velocities of one hundred and twenty and 

 sometimes even one hundred and fifty miles an hour, none but strictly 

 " simultaneous " weather-reports can adequately or truthfully reflect 

 their actual, ever-flitting movements as related to storm-vortices and 

 other atmospheric phenomena, whose approach and force they fore- 

 token. 



Once more. The most popular and profitable use to which meteor- 

 ologic observations can possibly be put would be, if it is practicable, 

 to forecasting in part the character of coming seasons — whether the 

 next winter will be mild or severe, or the approaching summer wet or 

 dry. It is certain that such forecasts will not be made until the net- 

 work of observing stations is so enlarged as to record the temperature 

 and other conditions over extensive portions of the oceanic, as well as 

 the solid face of the globe. The northern hemisphere at least must 

 be belted with stations returning simultaneous reports before season- 

 predictions can be successfully attempted. But, with a broad girdle 

 of observations around the middle latitudes, would it even then be pos- 

 sible to foreshadow the abnormal or extreme heat or cold of a coming 

 summer or winter ? It may seem premature to offer any reply to such 

 an interi'ogatory ; and yet it may not be as unanswerable as it seems. 

 It is now pretty clearly ascertained that the earth in its orbital revo- 

 lution is subjected to very decided periodic planetary influences, which 

 sometimes destroy the balance of the seasons. The researches of Mr. 

 Meldrum and others appear to corroborate the long-suspected physical 

 connection between terrestrial cyclones and those grand solar atmos- 

 pheric storms which produce or constitute sun-spots. A recent wi'iter, 

 summing up the latest results obtained from these and many like 

 investigations, concludes that "the solar spots and temperatures 



