406 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
—its clearly cut outlines and exquisite tints contrasting so admirably with the 
deep blue of the sky. 
For this reason artists attempt its representation in their paintings, but com- 
monly in a very imperfect manner, nature in this instance, defying Art with 
persistence and success. 
The cumulus generally floats in the surface stratum of air. This can be veri- 
fied by simple observation, the vane generally points foward the direction from 
which these clouds move. It is the cumulus which so often furnishes the tempo- 
rary but refreshing shade to the weary out-door laborer, the severity of whose task 
is thereby greatly mitigated. It is the function of the cumuli to act as watetr-car- 
riers, and in this capacity is their chief merit found. Millions of tons of water 
are daily conveyed in this manner with the speed of an express train from one por- 
tion of the country to another. Sometimes this water falls as rain and sometimes 
the clouds which it forms are dispersed and become again invisible vapor. 
The two forms of clouds known as cumulo-stratus and nimbus, are but the 
cumuli in its more advanced stages of existence. When there is /ow barometer 
with high temperature, the cumuli instead of dispersing, congregate in vast mass- 
es, sometimes disposed in ranges resembling mountains with domes and peaks 
rising grandly against the background of the sky. | These clouds rise to an im- 
mense height, their summits frequently being 25,000 feet from the surface of the 
earth. Their bases vary in elevation from 3,000 to 5,000 feet, consequently, their 
vertical thickness is very great. The apex of a thunder-cloud in hot weather, can 
be seen frequently on our western prairies, at a distance of two hundred miles. — 
This fact can be proved almost any summer’s day by means of the telegraph. 
In treating of causes we necessarily touch upon their effects, hence in speak- 
ing of clouds we must speak also of the phenomenon of precipitation. |Meteor- 
ologists hold different views concerning the direct causes which produce rain. 
Rozet and Kaemtz hold that, it is due to the commingling of cirrus and cumulus 
clouds ; the former being composed of frozen and the latter of vesicular vapor. 
Now, I do not regard the cirrus as a cause of rain so much as an effect. The 
cirrus if I may so term it, is the ashes of the storm-cloud, being only an incident- 
al product of the storm. If one of those scientists of Germany or France, who 
upholds the theory of Rozet, would spend one summer on our western prairies, he 
might see more than a dozen storms originate without a vestige of one of the cirri 
present in the visible heavens. It is a fact, however, that very soon after a cloud 
begins to yield rain, it assumes the so-called ‘‘ carded appearance” on its almost 
vertical sides and as the top becomes smooth a small horizontal fan of cirrus or 
cirro-stratus proceeds from near the summit gradually expanding laterally and in 
front until it covers manyfold more territory than the true rain cloud from which it 
was developed. If our scientific friend should continue his observations of this 
shower, he might possibly have the privilege of witnessing how ‘‘storms die,” 
for after the moisture of the cloud has mostly fallen as rain, he will notice the low- 
er parts dwindling away, until by and by there will be no more “ streaks of rain” 
