176 HENRY A. HUNT. 



use of such chances as presented themselves, showing the conditions 

 which prevailed for several hours, both before and after the burst. 

 During the present season they have been preceded by clear skies 

 and by overcast skies, and by cirrus and stratus and cumulus, 

 separately and in combination, and to varying extents. 



The skies obtaining with the north-westers were more often 

 than not, hazy or overcast, almost tropical of aspect, with hazy 

 stratus and occasional heavy thunder cumulus on the several 

 horizons, but with a special partiality to the south- west. 



With the north-easters the skies have been clearer and the 

 smoke-cloud arising from the metropolis, which is seldom notice- 

 able during a north-wester owing to the thick condition of the 

 atmosphere, has generally been perceptible round the horizon in 

 stratified form. The background, or upper strata, when seen, has 

 been composed of fine cirrus, the surface wind occasionally bring- 

 ing in detached cumulus travelling very low. At times also, as 

 with the north-westers, detached cumulus have been visible to the 

 south-west. The lower strata always moved with the wind, while 

 the upper moved from the west, with an occasional tendency to 

 west-north-west or west-south-west, but this motion could only be 

 discerned in a few instances. In the majority of cases no move- 

 ment could be detected. Whether the easterly motion is a current 

 or merely the general drift of the atmosphere cannot be decided 

 but as jjb was noticeable at night I should incline towards the 

 latter hypothesis. No atmospheric current, apart from these two, 

 was observed at any time, except when an agitation was remotely 

 visible overhead between the two, due to vertical uprising or 

 lowering of either one or the other. In these rare instances the 

 clouds moved in all directions. 



There were fewer opportunities for observing the upper strata 

 after the burst than while the northerly winds prevailed, but 

 when the conditions permitted observation the cloud movements 

 generally tended from due west. I do not, however, feel inclined 

 to commit myself more definitely on the subject of cloud aspects 

 since the observations from which these statements are deduced 



