64 Scientific Intelligence. 
The height of the meteor, at disappearance, was about 29° above | 
the horizon, its bearing nearly due east from Watch Hill Light, 
Stevens’ Institute of Technology, Hoboken, N. J., June 15th, 1871. 
IV. MiscELLANEOUS SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 
On the —— a, a —_—- sa Snow on Climate ; Py = 
enon Member the Imp. s. Geogr. Society. (Co 
municated).— he santo of a os er of snow, resting on the 
earth’s surface in the colder a of the earth during winter, — 
has, to my knowledge, never been considered in its general bear- — 
ing on the climate and the epuiiaue! of the population living in ~ 
these countries 
The first and most apparent influence of snow is the protection — 
it affords to our crops from the cold of winter. Where the snow- | 
mantle appears emer sieannie hoa are always sure, ie the cold — 
ever so intense. In the steppes of south and east Russia, where § 
little snow falls in waster; and this small quantity is often blown — 
away by the strong winds, w inter crops are — Ss at 
all. On the northern coasts of the Black Sea, summer wheat a 
tndinn corn are very good, but winter wheat is a servi pee 
while to the north, in “Podolia, it is the principal crop. There the — 
_ forests afford a protection against the wind, the snow falls more | 
caradperd and cannot be blown aw : 
s a bad conductor of heat, its snow isolates the warmer soil 
from the cold air ote and there is no doubt that it renders also 
paths winter cold more intense, as the air cannot receive heat from 
lov he 
— and a cold, dry wind is more severely felt than a cold | 
nae 
The : phat relative ee of the air is a most ap ieny fou 4 
ture of the countries covered with snow in winter. It i eas 
to account for it as for the humidity of an island in the middle of 
the ocean or of a place situated in an extensive swamp-tract. — 
The wind may come from every side ; it has always to pass over 3 — 
rie evaporating surface, and absorbs moisture if it was originally — 
In co oe where nr — winds predominate, as in the 
f N, Americ: d Eastern Asia, this will be less — 
the ca od winds, expidly passing over the land, have not the 
_ time for teaiog mueb 1m moisture, and the dryness of the air in 
the United States is felt by Europeans going there. But - 
- countries situated like —— and Western Asia, where the cold 
