58 BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN MEMOIRS 



as it does at Port Jefferson, for instance. During many months the wind 

 movement at Montauk averages thirteen thousand miles (about six thous- 

 and at Port Jefferson) and hourly velocities of 60, 65, 72, 74 and 80 miles 

 are not uncommon, while the wind has been known to blow as much as 

 84 and 86 miles an hour during severe storms. The high record at Port 

 Jefferson is 61 miles an hour. 



Another feature of the wind at Montauk, surpassing all other stations 

 along the Atlantic coast, is that there average 109 separate winds in each 

 year, of over fifty miles an hour velocity. Even comparative periods of 

 calm, punctuated by such gales, must have a profound effect upon the 

 vegetation. 



These separate winds that blow over fifty miles an hour come more fre- 

 quently, of course, during the winter months. Eighty of them come during 

 December, January, February and March, while the others are scattered 

 through the rest of the year, June and July excepted, which appear to be, 

 on the average, free from them. The scarcity of evergreens, — there is 

 only a single stunted pitch pine, and very few cedars, — may well be due to 

 the bunching of these winds during a period when, unlike deciduous trees, 

 their transpiration demands are most difficult to meet. 



Most of these figures of wind movement are taken from an article by 

 Spencer Lee Trotter on "Local peculiarities of wind velocity and movement 

 along the Atlantic seaboard, — Eastport, Me., to Jacksonville, Fla." which 

 appeared in the Monthly Weather Review for November 1920, and from 

 earlier records of the Weather Bureau. These records are too copious to 

 quote here, but summarizing from them shows the following for the wind 

 movement at Block Island (Montauk) : 



Yearly Wind Movement at Montauk 



1918 153,774 miles 



1919 155-084 " 



1920 160,848 " 



1921 155,801 " 



1922 155-488 " 



It should be remembered in this connection that all the figures from 

 Montauk (Block Island) are based on instruments only forty-six feet above 

 sea level, which is lower than at any of the coastal stations which Mr, 

 Trotter has tabulated. Many of the hills at Montauk are at least twice 

 that height above sea level, and a few three times that height. If the 

 measurements of Stevenson as to the increase of wind with altitude operate 



I9I2 



159-591 



miles 



I9I3 



153-982 





I9I4 



159.979 





I9I5 



154.313 





I9I6 



160,504 





I9I7 



156,203 





