20 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 89 



Returning to the subject of cloudiness, our record covered io6 days 

 in the period from March lO to July .19, and during this interval only 

 six days were lost by clouds while we were on the mountain. Possibly 

 10 days would be an outside estimate for cloudy days during the entire 

 131 days between the above dates. Dr. W. F. Hume, the Government 

 geologist of Egypt, was very much interested in our work, and being 

 familiar with the Sinai region, gave us much valuable information and 

 data concerning it. In 1898-99 he made an extended geological sur- 

 vey of southeastern Sinai, and a meteorological record was kept by 

 the late H. G. Skill. Doctor Hume kindly presented us with a copy of 

 this publication. The weather record covered whatever location the 

 geological party happened to be occupying, hence it probably shows 

 more cloudiness than would have been encountered on the summit of 

 Mount St. Katherine, and quite likely some observing could have been 

 done on days that Mr. Skill listed as cloudy. In any event their record 

 shows the following for morning hours from October 15 until March 

 ID, when our record begins : 



Days Clouds 



Month observed in a. m. 



October 15 i 



November 30 6 



December 31 6 



January 31 5 



February 28 6 



March 10 i 



Total 145 25 



It appears that 25 days lost by reason of clouds from October 15 to 

 March 10 would be a very fair estimate. There are no records avail- 

 able from July 19 to October 15, but from our record of July and 

 Doctor Hume's record of the last half of October, it would appear 

 that six days would be an outside estimate of days lost by clouds dur- 

 ing this interval. Hence if 1932 and 1898-99 were average years, it 

 would seem that approximately 40 days per year would thus be lost on 

 Mount St. Katherine. From several conversations that we had with 

 Mr. Smith, the superintendent of the British manganese mine at Abu 

 Zenima, where he has been stationed for four years, it would appear 

 that 1932 was more cloudy and hazy than normal. Unfortunately, 

 the monks at the monastery have kept no weather records during 

 the long period of the monastery's existence. 



The above figures would indicate that about 89 per cent of the days 

 throughout the year could be used for observations as far as actual 

 clouds are concerned. Doctor Hume's record of windiness would not 



