464 PHILOSOPHY OF STORMS. 



tory being so much smaller every year thari what was col- 

 lected in any other rain gauge in the surrounding neighbor- 

 hood, attracted so much attention, that a committee of 

 skilful mechanics and mathematicians were appointed to 

 examine it. And they, after minute examination, reported 

 that its construction and condition was in every respect 

 accurate and perfect. 1 



6th. In one passage of the documents sent me, clouds, so 

 far as I recollect, are stated to have been observed eleven 

 miles high; and in another passage, fourteen miles high, 

 No observations ever made in Europe, that I am aware of, 

 have afforded evidence that clouds, even of the cirous kind, 

 exist in the atmosphere above the elevation of 25,000, or 

 30,000 feet, at most. 2 



7th. According to your theory, barometric fluctuations 



1 I do not recollect that I ever said, in any of my writings, that the heat 

 communicated to the incumbent atmosphere by a very limited combustion, 

 occasioned, by the upward motion produced in the air, a local thunder storm, 

 accompanied with heavy rain. But as it is my belief that great fires under 

 favorable circumstances, may produce rains, I may have said something like 

 it. But as this is a mere matter of opinion, and as it can only be decided by 

 experiment, which I hope soon to try, I forbear to dwell on this point. I am, 

 however, grossly misinformed if it does not rain much more frequently in and 

 about large manufacturing cities in Europe, especially in Great Britain, than 

 in other parts. It does not follow, however, from this, that there will be more 

 rain in the city itself than in the suburbs or the adjacent country ; for the air 

 is seldom so still, that the column of cloud which might be formed over the 

 city by the upmoving column of air, would remain so perpendicularly over the 

 place of its formation, as to rain down on the city itself, as much as it will in 

 the suburbs and neighboring regions ; and as the wind prevails from the west 

 in the British isles, it is likely that more rain would fall on the east side of 

 these great manufacturing towns than on the west. In accordance with this 

 theoretical deduction, my friend, Mr. T. Sully, on his return from Europe, 

 told me, that in comparing notes with Mr. Leslie, he found that Mr. Leslie 

 had many more favorable days for painting in the west part of London, than 

 Mr. Sully had, who was more eastern, on account of the thick weather and 

 misty rain, which prevailed more where Mr. Sully lived. (More observa- 

 tions on this point are much wanted.) 



8 The steam power of the clouds in the United States is much greater than 

 it is in Great Britain. 



