46 THE CLIMATOLOGY OF THE UNITED STATES. 



within the last five years have been unparalleled in the his- 

 tory of the country, and the frequency of severe storms all 

 over the world has been very unusual. In January, 1884, 

 a paper was read before the Academy of Sciences at Paris, 

 giving a review of the year 1883. The following lines are 

 taken from a synopsis of this paper. 



"At the last January session of the Paris Academy of 

 Sciences, M. Foye gave a rather startling summary of re- 

 cent physical commotions both on the earth and on the 

 sun. Among the numerous exceptional phenomena noted 

 for some time such as the frightful volcanic explosion of 

 Krakatoa, the immense sea waves and air waves which 

 swept round the globe, and the strange celestial lights and 

 colorations, he mentioned that the month of January in 

 Europe resembled in temperature the month of April, 

 while systematic observations disclose singular variations 

 in sun-spot frequency and no less singular behavior of the 

 magnetic needle. During the present summer in the 

 southern hemisphere extraordinary heat has been recorded, 

 the thermometer at Buenos Ayres rising in the shade to 

 101 and in Queensland to 106. In consonance with the 

 disturbed state of the earth, M. Wolf of Zurich reports 

 two pronounced sun spot maxima in April and October 

 last, and only four days in 1883 in which the sun was not 

 spotted. Though these maxima were not so high as that 

 of April, 1882, and there are now indications that the sun's 

 activity is decreasing, physicists will not be slow to con- 

 nect the terrestrial disturbances with the solar storms. 

 The French scientist may now add to his list of strange 

 phenomena the late unparalleled Ohio floods, the extraor- 

 dinary southern tornadoes of recent date, with the reported 

 death roll of several hundred persons and the phenome- 

 nally early and extensive efflux of Arctic ice upon the At- 

 lantic." The above extract points quite plainly to the fact 



