150 



THE FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 

 34. METEOROLOGICAL ABSTRACT, ETC. Continued. 



CLASSIFICATION OF THE WINDS. The winds, here, may be classified under two heads: Summer winds 

 Blowing fresh during June, July, and August, principally from the west-northwest, varied with light airs from the 

 northeast, and a gale or two from the southwest, lasting a day or so. Winter winds Stirring fresh, to gales, 

 throughout September to June, principally from the northwest to north -northeast; the "boorgas", or snow and 

 sleet storms, coming invariably from that direction. One or two heavy southeasters occur every fall, as a rule; 

 in October generally; the brief lulls between blasts during this season are occupied by light southerly airs. 



The summer winds are always charged with fog; while the winter gales usually blow out clear, unless 

 accompanied with sleety spicul* or snow. In Siberia, Wrangell says that the southwest breezes are the coldest ; 

 the north-northwest ones are such here. The southerly airs are mild; but, I never felt any especial warmth 

 when exposed to them. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF BERINO SEA ICE. The descriptions which Wrangell, Demetri Laptev, and Hendenstrom 

 have given of the behavior of the ice packs, between the Kolyma mouth and Cape Chelagskoi, were duplicated, in 

 all their details, by the floes which environed St. Paul during the winter of my residence there. Onthe27tb May, 

 1873, the ice fields around the island seemed as solid and unbroken to every point of the compass as they had for 

 th<? five months preceding; and night settled over them in this shape; early in the morning of the following day, 

 1 arose, and, judge of my pleasant astonishment in viewing the open waters of Bering sea on every hand; the only 

 suggestions left of its icy fetters were the numerous scattered cakes of thickest floes, which bobbed about at wide 

 intervals, there was little or no strong wind attending this sudden dissolution. The decomposition of the ice had 

 taken place so secretly that its final relegation to its original form was fairly accomplished almost instantly and 

 simultaneously, and without warning to human eyes; the alternate layering of salt, in ocean water ice, accounts 

 for this peculiar vanishing of sea floes. 



THE FAILURE OF THE BAROMETER IN BERING SEA. Pre-eminent among the many difficulties in the path of 

 the mariner who may be cruisiug in Bering sea, is the fact that his barometer, which gives such timely and 

 intelligent signals of warning, or of confidence, everywhere on the high seas of the earth, is, up here, by some reason 

 or other, wholly impotent; and does nothing to aid, and everything to confuse and distress the sailor. Captain M. 

 C. Erskine assured me of this; and his declaration is proof positive to my mind ; he is undoubtedly, by the long 

 experience of more than fourteen consecutive seasons' sailing in and out of Bering sea, 1867-1880 (this year's trip 

 will'make his fifteenth summer in those waters), the most thoroughly posted man, living, in regard to the currents, 

 tides, windi^and waves of the northwest coast between San Francisco and Bering straits. 



With the exception of what Parry says in his narrative of his third voyage (1824), I do not find any specific 

 mention made. ''of this behavior of the, barometer in the north; all of the arctic seamen, unquestionably, fully 

 understand i^s utter worthlessness to them. Parry declares (Harper's Family Library, p. 60, vol. ii) "the indications 

 of the barometer previous to and during this gale deserve to be noticed, because it is only about Cape Farewell that, 

 in coming from the northward down Davis strait, this instrument begins to speak a language which has ever been 

 intelligible to us as a wonther-glass". 



During the course of my cruise in Bering sea, July-September, 187J, the barometer was carefully noted, and 

 Captain Baker of the "Reliance" satisfied himself that the less attention he gave to it the better, as far as the 

 success of our voyage was concerned. 



