TRANSACTIONS. 



NOTES ON PHENOMENA OBSERVED IN VOYAGES 

 TO THE EAST. 



A Paper by CAPTAIN E. G. STEAD, 

 January iith, 1S98. 



The paper I am reading to-night is simply the notes I have 

 made on my own observations of Natural phenomena during a 

 sea life of 45 years. There is no connecting thread running 

 through it. I simply take the phenomena in order of my notes. 



Fog. 



To people on land fog is of little importance outside large 

 Cities or Manufacturing towns, but to people at sea it is a cause 

 of great anxiety. Fog does not appear to maintain the same 

 density throughout, for at 20 feet from the water's edge it may be 

 so thick that objects are not visible 50 feet away, while at the 

 same time the sea level objects may be visible a third of a mile 

 away. In the Mediterranean Sea fogs are prevalent in the 

 month of June, and are particulary dense. I have been steaming 

 along in perfectly clear weather with a sea like glass, the 

 horizon apparently visible all round, when the sound of a 

 steamer's fog whistle has been heard, and all at once the ship 

 has been enveloped in a dense tog which extended for several 

 miles. One runs out of them again just as suddenly, sometimes 

 a man stationed aloft can see over them, at other times not. 

 One peculiar feature I noticed was that aftei passing out of them, 

 the horizon again appeared to be the true one, which of course 

 could not be the case, but the fog may have risen suddenly as we 

 see a cloud rise in a mountainous district. I expect often when 

 Canterbury is enveloped in a dense fog any one on the top of the 

 Cathedral tower would be in clear weather. I once saw from 

 aloft, the top of Port Said Lighthouse when the fog was very 

 thick on deck, and was able to take my ship into Pilotage water. 



A Blue Moon. 



Whence arose the expression " Not once in a Blue Moon." 

 It is one frequently used by sailors and also by Landsmen, and it 

 appears to me there must be some foundation for it. I can 



