Papers by members 1 1 5 



ped off of the stump and was held upright, its branches being 

 entangled among neighl)oring branches. Near a rather flat 

 topped hill some fifty feet above the level of Dead River near 

 Marquette. Michigan, there was an old dam; from just above 

 this dam. as also from Rainy Creek on the other side of the 

 hill, canals had been cut across the rather level ground to the 

 base of the hill in order that the poplars growing on the sides 

 of the hills might readily be transferred to the streams. The 

 canal running just above the dam to the mouth of the ra- 

 vine was about 130 feet long. Down the steep hillsides were 

 worn well used slides down which the beavers coasted their 

 logs. Some poplar trees on the sides of the ravine had been 

 cut and in falling had fallen across the ravine and lodged 

 with the butt on one side and the top on the other. The 

 beavers w^ere evidently puzzled to meet this situation. The 

 top had been gnawed as also the butt, irregularly, but a dozen 

 such trees had been abandoned. 



Apparently we have a mixture of keen intelligence and 

 inexplicable stupidity from this same animal and I am not 

 prepared as yet to state any definite conclusions regarding the 

 degree of intelligence. 



PRACTICAL CLOUD STUDIES. 



M. L. FULLER. 



Weather forecasting the world over is done principally 

 by watching the shift and development of the high pressure 

 areas and low pressure areas shown on the daily weather 

 maps. These maps, as is well understood, are prepared from 

 data furnished by simultaneous observations telegraphed at 

 regular hours, usually twice each day. from all stations in 

 the country ; and a study of consecutive maps indicates the 

 direction and the rate of movement of the Highs and Lows 

 that appear thereon, and the principal features of weather 

 and temperature that accompany them. In this w^ay the 

 probable weather for a given state or locality is estimated 

 for one or two days in advance and the estimate is issued 

 as the official forecast. 



The work of forecasting is complicated bv the great 

 variation that occurs in both the direction and the rate of 

 progress of the Highs and Lows and in the distribution 

 of cloudiness and precipitation about the Low^s. While the 

 pressure areas in temperate latitudes almost invariablv move 

 eastward, their paths may be at almost any eastward angle 

 and may change from one to another on short notice. And 

 their speed may vary from almost nothing to a thousand 



