A Journey to Cloudland 



A majestic cumulus, passing into cumulus-nimbus. A very beautiful and common type 



THE clouds, like the stars, are 

 among those common objects of 

 Nature upon which men look, for 

 the most part, with unseeing eyes. Some 

 aspects of the clouds do, indeed, force 

 themselves upon our attention — chiefly 

 those that denote the imminence of a 

 storm — but few of us realize to the full 

 the beauty and scientific interest of the 

 vapory pageant that is continually sweep- 

 ing across our skies. Strange to say, 

 many artists, skilled in painting land- 

 scapes, are unable to paint plausible sky 

 scenes. About half a century ago an 

 English painter, Elijah Walton, pub- 

 lished a book (now almost forgotten) in 

 which he pointed out that the great ma- 

 jority of out-door pictures, including 

 those of the old masters, are very inac- 

 curate in their skies. If the painter, 

 whose business it is to observe Nature, 

 has acquired so imperfect a knowledge 

 of clouds, no wonder the average citi- 

 zen needs instruction concerning them. 

 At first sight, clouds seem infinitelv 



various, yet with a little study one can 

 assign them all to a few broad classes. 

 The scientific classification of clouds 

 dates from the year 1803. when an Eng- 

 lish chemist, Luke Howard, published a 

 description of seven cloud-types, to each 

 of which he gave a Latin name. W'ith 

 a few additions and modifications, How- 

 ard's classification is now generally used 

 by meteorologists. This system is based 

 upon three fundamental forms: viz, 

 fibrous or feathery clouds (cirrus), 

 clouds with rounded tops (cumulus), 

 and clouds arranged in horizontal sheets 

 or layers (stratus). Intermediate forms 

 are described by compounding the names 

 of the primary types ; e. g., cirro-cumu- 

 lus, cirro-stratus, etc. 



There is really no good reason why 

 the intelligent schoolboy, who knows an 

 oak from an elm and a crow from a 

 turkey buzzard, should not be able to 

 call the clouds by their names. The In- 

 ternational Cloud Classification, now 

 adopted for scientific purposes all over 



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