276 COLORADO NOTES. 



ers. For the new-born child three conditions are necessary : pure air, mild and 

 equable temperature. To wet nurses, he counsels that they be fed as much as 

 possible, following, while varying, the regimen to which they have been accus- 

 tomed, avoiding a too succulent fare, which speedily fattens nurses while dimin- 

 ishing their supply of milk. 



If the great movements of the atmosphere were known to us, that is, if we 

 could discover the laws of their formation and direction, meteorology would be- 

 come a science as exact as chemistry. M. Tissandier, the noted aeronaut, con- 

 tributes some interesting meteorological facts. The clouds are suspended in the 

 atmosphere in layers or fields, of thickness varying from 220 yards, and at heights 

 from 1,7000 to 4,000 yards. The atmosphere is frequently separated into two 

 distinct portions by strata of clouds, the upper portion may be quite pure, while 

 the lower engenders rain or hail. The pure, upper regions, hold often in sus- 

 pension spangles of ice, which shine like needles in the sun's rays ; there are thus 

 not only ice clouds but layers of crystalline snow. The clouds near the surface 

 of the soil are not only variable, but their -spect changes following the latitude 

 of a country. In the upper regions of the air, the watery vapor rarely moistens 

 the skin : the contrary is the case with fogs at the surface of the soil, but which 

 are only a special form of vapor. There are layers of clouds that are transpar- 

 ent vertically, but not so when viewed horizontally. F. C. 



COLORADO NOTES. 



Prof. C. E. Robins, writing from Summit, Colorado, July 20, alludes to the 

 Review very complimentarily, and says : "I read with much interest and high 

 approval, the article on National Defense and Military Education, by my old 

 friend, Captain Trowbridge. It is every way admirable. I must, however, take 

 leave to differ wholly from Prof. Mudge — fourth paragraph on page 174, same 

 number of the Review — since both insects and butterflies abound at 12,500 feet 

 in this district to-day. Honey and mason bees, I think, are here; "bumble 

 bees" (Bombus) I know are, having only last week come into personal contact 

 with the business end of one. Six of the nine subsections of the class Insecta are 

 represented here, and I am by no means sure that Coleoptera, Neuroptera and 

 Myriopoda are absent. I only have not noticed them. Lepidoptera is well repre- 

 sented. Pieris oleracea and Cohas philodice have been seen since the 28th of June. 

 Bombus was first observed on the 25th. 



The weather is perfect here, 72 ° being the highest temperature, so far, of 

 the month. I counted yesterday twenty-one snow fields in sight on South Moun- 

 tain (one 12 feet deep), and thirty-one on North Mountain (Summit Peak). 



I have arranged two parties of observation of the solar eclipse on the 29th, 

 one for top of South Mountain, the other, under my personal direction, will take 

 the situation from the triangulation monument on Summit Peak. Have full in- 

 structions from Gen. Myers, and if the afternoon is fair expect an interesting time. 



