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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 5 I 



by the ground is also beautifully seen in the changes from winter to 

 spring and from summer to autumn. 



It is also evident that especially in the summer curve between 

 3000 and 4000 meters peculiarities may be recognized similar to 

 those in the lowest thousand meters, although on a much feebler 

 scale. Perhaps we may in this perceive an indication of the circum- 

 stance that similar, although perhaps feebler, processes take place 

 at the upper bound arv surface of thick clouds as at the surface of 

 the earth. 



6000m 



-IO' o to- 



W FH S 

 FIG. 44 



The curves in fig. 45 representing the change of the specific 

 humidity show great similarity to the temperature curves, as indeed 

 could but be expected. The irregularities shown by them are not 

 surprising. We would rather wonder that the curves are not still 

 more irregular when we consider the difficulties that we encounter in 

 determining the humidity and how small are the psychrometric 

 differences in the upper strata on which these determinations are 

 based. We may therefore rather regard these curves as a welcome 

 proof of the excellence of the observations. 



Reference has already been made to the fact that the curves 

 of temperature condition here used have great similarity to those 

 that I have previously used in order to study the movements of 

 heat in the ground and which can be equally well applied to the 

 corresponding processes in lakes or the ocean. 



In that memoir 13 I have drawn the depths vertically downward 

 from the earth's surface as ordinates and the corresponding tem- 



13 See Berlin Sitzungsberichte, 1892, pp. 1139-1178; or Memoir No. XIX 

 of this collection of translations. 



