THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 195 



February was the most rainy month thus far observed, both as re- 

 gards the quantity tliat fell and the number of rainy days. On the 

 28th there was a considerable s])rinkle of hail, attended with light- 

 ning and thunder, from a nimbus coursing from west to east, 



March was stormy, higli winds prevailing from almost every point 

 of the compass. Most of tlie rain that fell this month waa ou the 

 13th, 14th^ and 15th, the wind veering about and blowing, at one 

 time, strong from the northeast, which is unusual. Immediately after 

 this the Sacramento river, which had remained at a very low stage all 

 the winter, commenced rising suddenly and soon reached twenty feet 

 two inclios above low-v/ater mark. It soon, however, began to fall 

 again. When the sun entered Aries the weather was fine and clear ; 

 wind northwest; mean temperature 61° ; mean reading of barometer 

 30.16 inches. On the 30th a comet was visible in the western hori- 

 zon at about 8 p. m. It bore northwest by north, with an altitude of 

 about 20° ; length of tail about 6°, extending towards the zenith. 



April, although preceded by the coldest v/inter yet observed, was, 

 from its inception, literally the opening month, and towards its latter 

 end vegetation was as much advanced as at the corresponding period 

 of the previous year. A coincidence worthy of note, inasmucli as 

 these phenomena are so seldom witnessed, was the occurrence of light- 

 ning and thunder on the 29 th of the same month last year as well as 

 at the same date this year, accompanied by hail from a nimbus cours- 

 ing southeast ; the mean reading of the barometer on the latter date 

 being 29. DO inches, and of the thermometer 60.03°. 



May was characterized by capricious weather, vacillating between 

 winter and summer. Two more thunder-storms, attended with high 

 wind, occurred, one on the 6th antl the other on the 18th. The for- 

 mer^ though less severe in tlie neighborhood of the city than that of 

 the 29th April, seemed to spend its chief fury, accompanied with 

 hail, in its course from southwest, extending from a point about eight 

 miles from the city to an unascertained distance beyond. This storm 

 which lasted fifteen minutes, was so severe at a place called Spanish 

 Ranch, in the American valley, that the inmates were obliged to bar- 

 ricade the windows and doors to prevent them being blown in, and 

 two of a herd of cattle were killed by lightning. The barometer did 

 not read lower here at the time than thirty inches. The great annu- 

 lar eclipse of the sun was well observed here on the 26th, the sky 

 being entirely cloudless. At the period of the greatest obscuration 

 the landscape presented the same appearance as when viewed through 

 glasses of a neutral tint, and totally different from the shades of 

 evening. The sky was of the deep greenish blue color seen in some 

 paintings of the Venetian school. On the following day the wind, 

 which had been fresh from the south^ changed to southwest, and then to 

 northwest, from which quarter it blew a gale from 10 a. m., for twenty- 

 four hours. After this it moderated a little, but continued high to the 

 last day of the month, when the barometer fell to its extraordinary 

 minimum, as in table No. 2. 



June responded from the very first to the atmospheric disturbances 

 of the preceding month, and the established natural laws of the dry 

 season were infringed three different times by rain, on the Ist, 12th, 



