142 Notes on the Storms of High South Latitudes. 



from some point to southward of W. The stratification 

 often appears at intervals after the rain has set in, when 

 the threads or lines will be found to have backed — that is 

 to say, the line of direction of the threads will have moved 

 round till they lay from N.W. to S.E. The storm is now in 

 full force, and it is only at intervals that the upper clouds can 

 be seen; they will be seen to be moving from a north-westerly 

 point till the centre has passed over. It often happens that 

 at or near the centre the weather clears up for a time, when 

 the sky will be seen full of dense fragments of cir., cir.-s., 

 and cir.-c, very much broken up and watery-looking, 

 enveloped in a thick haze, all moving from a north-westerly 

 point. But the sky soon becomes overcast again till the 

 wind shifts round to a south-westerly point, when all the 

 upper clouds will be found to have left, fragments only here 

 and there moving from a south-westerly point. Large cumuli 

 clouds are now continually formed, which are edged by 

 cirrus-looking clouds, and seem a good deal affected by 

 electric action, as seen by their abrupt serrated edges, stick- 

 ing out in all directions above the cloud, and apparently 

 strongly repelling each other's ends. These are also more or 

 less attended by vivid flashes of lightning, which at night- 

 time are a valuable warning of the approaching squall, 

 before the cloud itself becomes visible. There is generally 

 a strong gust of wind in them, and heavy downpours of 

 hail and rain, but only for a short time, the wind also being 

 unsteady, varying at times several points, mostly towards a 

 more southerly point. 



One thing may be worth noticing before passing on — it is 

 the warning that the wind will soon veer to the southward 

 when it is at W. or W.N.W., with fine weather. Fine high 

 hard-looking cirrus clouds which, in the neighbourhood of the 

 sun exhibit the most beautiful prismatic colours, and when 

 the moon is up at night-time a green corona, at times very 

 well defined, round it against the blue sky. It would be a 

 valuable help to upper-cloud observations if the places where 

 the cirrus is parallel to the horizon, and the apparent radiant 

 points were always noted down, for, although it is noticeable 

 that in the northern hemisphere the movements are very 

 eccentric at times, yet to the southward I have always 

 noticed that they move from a point, almost, if not quite, at 

 right angles to the point to which they are parallel ; and 

 these points could always be noted with great exactness, 

 whereas the point from which they move is not exact often, 



