CLOUD WORK OF THE WEATHER BUREAU 351 



The most pathetic incident that has reached us is the account 

 of the lonely vigil of Bjoervig. We are told that he and Bentzen 

 were spending the winter night alone in the outpost camp, nearly 

 a hundred miles north of the main camp. Here Bentzen died — 

 surely not from the scurvy, as anti-scorbutic food in abundance 

 had been taken from Norway — and, with the inherent dread the 

 Norwegians have of having bears feed upon their bodies, he evi- 

 dently exacted from his companion a promise to preserve his 

 corpse until the summer sun could loosen enough stones to form 

 at least the semblance of a grave. Such a promise was made to 

 be kept, and for two months the little tent-like hut sheltered 

 the living and the dead. These two men during the days of 

 preparation were always together. Both knew much of the dan- 

 gers and labor that would soon confront them, and they worked 

 with the common purpose to prepare to meet them. In the 

 discussions and conjectures as to who would form the advance 

 guard, all wished to be included, but all knew that these two 

 would surely go ; their fitness picked them out. And now Bent- 

 zen, the jolly, robust, energetic, noble-hearted man, has taken 

 another and still longer step into the unknown, and Bjoervig 

 has returned with the last messages of his companion and the 

 memories of that long night of waiting. Such an example of 

 fidelity almost merits the hardships of the Arctic for its procuring. 



Now that Mr Wellman will soon be with us, it is better to 

 await his story of what was accomplished, and content ourselves 

 at this point with saying that if it speaks of failure in any form 

 it will give positive proof that, under, the circumstances, hercu- 

 lean efforts could not have yielded better results. 



THE INTERNATIONAL CLOUD WORK OF THE 

 WEATHER BUREAU 



By Frank H. Bigelow, 

 Professor of Meteorology, U. S. Weatlier Bureau 



In the month of May, 1896, several national meteorological 

 services ' began in cooperation to take a series of simultaneous 

 observations on the height and the motion of the ten standard 

 types of clouds which have been defined by the International 

 Committee. The object of this survey of the movements of the 

 atmosphere, continued for at least one year, was to gather ma- 



