220 Meteorological Phenomena in 



more and more, the wind becomes south, it rains, it is now south- 

 west, and our short winter has passed by in order to be followed by 

 a like set of phenomena. Farther towards the north, snow does not 

 become rain with a south wind. There the snow of the whole 

 winter does not thaw, but forms large masses ; the sledge paths, too, 

 are never broken up by thaw ; every vehicle is changed into a sledge, 

 and the frozen river becomes a highway. In these countries, there 

 is a decided jump into winter weather, a jump which distinguishes a 

 Konigsbcrg from a Berlin winter. If the south wind presses on 

 with stormy quickness, then sleet falls, that is to say, drops of rain 

 which have been frozen in their descent. The summits of the 

 mountains, in such a case, are seen to thaw, whilst it is still bitterly 

 cold in the valleys below. "The Fohn (south wind) drives the cold 

 into the valley," the Tyrolese say. U\ on the contrary, the warm 

 and cold currents meet together, then the mixture of warm and cold 

 air only takes place on the limits of contact of both currents. Thick 

 mists in this instance are formed with the barometer high, because 

 the northern current dams itself up as it were against the warm 

 opposing south current. The two winds drive one another backwards 

 and forwards. " They are fighting together," the sailors say, and 

 thus we often pass from the limits of contact back again into the 

 cold current, that is to say, the thick mist often disappears suddenly, 

 and is again as quickly back again. 



The most superficial observation shews that the weather is less 

 variable in winter than in summer. In winter lasting; cloudiness 

 alternates with lasting brightness ; whereas in summer entirely 

 overcast and cloudless days are very rare. The reason of this is a 

 double one. If I travel in winter, from Berlin to Moscow, I find 

 a marked difference in the temperature ; in July, on the contrary, it 

 is almost equally warm in both cities. For the winds which do not 

 come from any great distance lose their peculiarities, so that from 

 whatever points of the compass they may blow they bring with 

 them air of equal warmth. It is not till the winds are at rest that 

 the influence of the soil first tells on the atmosphere in all its signi- 

 ficance, an influence which, when it was entirely covered by snow, had 

 wholly disappeared. The moisture which, rising from cool woods 

 and meadows, is condensed into a cloud, is entirely dissipated by a 

 warm surface of land. Hence those manifold masses of clouds 

 which, in single separate masses, with a level base and dazzling 

 hemisphere, float over the blue heavens, ar.d impart such ever- 

 varying beauty to a landscape when contemplated from a height. 

 How delighted are we when, after having been long deprived of this 

 beautiful sight, we see once more in spring these glowing cupolas 

 towering up like mountains from the horizon, for they are a sure sign 

 that winter is come at last. In summer, the clouds are in general 

 nothing more than an image of the ground projected on the sky, 

 and in proportion as the landscape is diversified by meadows, rocks, 



