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^CqitiirE.HH 
EXCELSIOR 
41 Park Row, i\cw York 
82 liufl’alo fet., Rochester 
83.00 PER YEAR. 
Single Dio., Eight Cent* 
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, JANUARY 29,1870 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by D. D, T. MOOBE, in the Clerk’s Office 0 1 the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.] 
second superior stratum of Cirrus, equally 
rainy; Cwnulo-atrcUus, because it differs in 
nothing from Cumulus, according to How¬ 
ard's own definitions, the three fundament¬ 
al characters of cloud type uud of its deriva¬ 
tions being common to these two forms, 
namely; tlieir horizontal bases, their supe¬ 
rior hemispherical basins, and the ascending 
aggregation of tlieir aqueous particles; in 
fine, Strytp - cumulus (Kaemtz’s cloud of 
night) because this modification answers 
in no manner, no more than Howard’s Stra¬ 
tus to clouds of night and because on the con¬ 
trary its other characteristics correspond to 
Oumulostratus, 
On the other hand I substitute for Nimbus 
the Pallium, which I subdivide into Pullio- 
cirrus and Pattio cumulus, according as its 
stratum is composed of Cirrus or Cumulus 
| This term has the triple advantage of em¬ 
bracing the character, the form and the ef¬ 
fect, that is to say, the Cirrus or Cumulus 
forming a rainy stratum. I introduce, in 
fine, the determination of a second t ransitor- 
ial form, which seems to mo can he rigorous¬ 
ly distinguished from, the preceding in the 
tloUhlo relation of cause and effect. This is 
the Jb-ado-rumulus, fragments of clouds 
which are wandering about without deter¬ 
mined form, before their Iransformalioii into 
Cumulus (or Cumuh-stratus); which are pre¬ 
cipitated or detached from the inferior sur¬ 
face of the stratum of Sallio-cumuliis, and 
which, in fine, arc spread out in horizontal 
bands at the summit of the Cumulus on the 
approach of gusts of wind. These Frado- 
cumulus differ from the Cumulus in this, they 
have neither the horizontal base nor tlic su¬ 
perior hemispherical basin, while they are 
not very extended ; hut as soon as they be¬ 
come a little more increased we see at once 
forming at the center of the fragment a space 
more dense and blackish than the r-at, 
which gradually settles until it constitutes 
the horizontal base of the Cumulus ( Cuimilo- 
stratus), the Upper part also Ijccoiuing round¬ 
ed by degrees. Thus the Fmcto-Cumvlus is 
the infancy of tiie Cumulus, otherwise called 
Gumulo-stratus, the terms being synonymous. 
This new classification is wholly based 
upon the nature, the form, the quantity, the 
direction, the velocity and the azimuthal rota¬ 
tion of the clouds corresponding to each 
stratum fully characterized by the origin, in¬ 
timate constitution and meteoric products of 
the vesicular vapors and congealed particles 
which constitute them. For, in the intimate 
ms, constitute the Pallio-cimts and flic in¬ 
ferior of Cumulus constitute the Pullio-cu- 
mulus. The fragments of clouds which dif¬ 
fer entirely from the Cumulus or Qumulo - 
stratus are the Fructo-cumulus. 
Hence we sec the necessity of distinguish¬ 
ing these two strata by different names; 
Howard's unique name of Nimbus did not 
do this, while granting him the greatest de- 
tho gray and cloudy sky of Great Britain, 
whence are his Strato-misl, his imperfect dis¬ 
tinction of the two strata Cirrus and Cumu¬ 
lus, or his Nimbus (the rain cloiul), the differ¬ 
ence which ho has established between Cu¬ 
mulus and Cumulo-stratus, without counting 
many other details of description, which are 
faulty, in relation to Cirrus, Cirro-stratus and 
Cirro-cumulus. 
ceptionally these three elements, hut assured¬ 
ly they neglect the velocity and especially 
the azimuthal rotation which 1 have first 
signalized in clouds, and which is not yet 
understood. In fine, not a single register 
gives these five elements for one stratum of 
cloud, much less for each distinct stratum of 
those which very often appear super-posed 
in the atmosphere. 
ctrorolagual 
NEW CLASSIFICATION OF CLOUDS 
Instruction* to be Used in the Observation 
of Cloiul*. nml of the Inferior anil Supe- 
rlor Current* of the Atmosphere i Specially 
RmlKiietl for Atrrirnlt ii riHts ami Seamen. 
BY PROP. ANDRE POET, 
Director of the Observatory at Havana. 
No one is ignorant that the study of clouds 
is, from the point of view of our practical 
needs, one of the most important questions 
Indeed, there 
Meteorology can present us, 
is no other meteorological manifestation can 
so fix the attention of the yeoman in the 
city, of the agriculturist in the country, of 
the tourist on the mountain’s summit, of the 
soldier in war, of the sailor in continual 
strife with the disturbances of atmosphere 
and sea, and, in fine, of the savant in general. 
We everywhere see these different social 
elements continually watching the diverse 
appearances which the clouds offer us, and 
casting upon them a look of Interrogation, 
of disquietude, of desire, of a wish constant¬ 
ly renewed to grasp their form3, in order to 
predict good or bad weather, according to 
our social needs. 
It is especially when the atmosphere 
threatens some perturbation, rain, storm, 
tempest, that, the common people examine 
the character of the clouds. But how often, 
at every moment, of the day, do they ask 
each other about the temperature, hot, cold, 
or wet, which sensibly exists, while just as 
often do they pass by unbendingly the clouds, 
which exert a no less direct or indirect ac¬ 
tion upon atmospheric variations, as well in 
the abnormal state as in the normal. 
Moreover each country, according to its 
geographical position, topography, etc., lias 
its own type of clouds. Here the Cirrus 
rtjkt^r-M- 
A PAIR OF PREMIUM RABBITS EXHIBITED AT THE LATE N. Y. STATE POULTRY SHOW, BY J. STANTON GOULD 
Drawn and Engraved Expressly- for Moore’s rtnral New-Yorker. 
Here is now the vindication of my three 
new clouds. When certain clouds are 
spread out uniformly, cover the whole face 
of the heavens, take a gray or ash color, 
under which state rain may occur for hours 
and whole days, wlmt, name do we give to 
these clouds V They are not Howard’s 
Nimbus, as we conceive them and as they 
are generally described. These clouds are 
neither stormy, nor have they electrical 
manifestations, there is only a fine and con¬ 
tinuous rain. Under this stratum—for it is 
a true stratum—we see constantly other 
clouds more or less considerable, hut always 
isolated, come to be lost in it. and to increase 
its thickness, 
torial regions, and in fine that the latter 
disapears first. Without this distinction we 
are obliged to call the first stratum Clivus, 
and the second Cumulus ; but as under this 
state of strata the form and physical proper¬ 
ties of Cirrus and Cumulus change complete¬ 
ly, there results the confusion and errors 
daily committed. 
As regards Howard’s classification as a 
whole, while retaining the two types of Cir¬ 
rus and Cumulus, with his two derivative 
clouds, Cirro-stratus and Cirro-cumulus, I re¬ 
ject entirely his Stratus, his Nimbus and his 
Oumulo-atratus, together witli the Strato-cu- 
mulus of Kaemtz, for the following reasons: 
Stratus* because it Is not (according to 
Howard) a cloud properly so-called, but a 
mist or hoar frost, or yet by the effect of an 
optical illusion, a Cirrus, a Cirro-stratus or a 
Cirro-cumulus, as seen in perspective at the 
horizon; Nimbus, for the reason that it is an 
inexact denomination which is moreover ap¬ 
plied to an idea as vague as incorrect, from 
the moment that Cumulus is not truly rainy 
as far as it is found displayed, forming a 
stratum as dense in appearance and below a 
On the contrary, before this 
stratum begins to break up, and during this 
operation, we see these same formless frag¬ 
ments detach themselves and fly to other 
regions. This inferior stratum is not, alone, 
for when its disruption has taken place we 
see through it another stratum of clouds, 
whiter and less dense, which is broken up in 
its turn, anil ends by disappearing in an in¬ 
verse order to that of the first inferior strat¬ 
um. Have we a name for this variety of 
cloud, so common in time of rain from the 
inter-tropical regions to high latitudes, espe¬ 
cially in winter, during falls of snow? Does 
Howard’s term Nimbus, and bis description 
of it account for this sort of cloud ? Certainly 
not. We name indifferently a Nimbus, the 
single storm cloud, as well ns this Inferior 
stratum, or yet the two united strata and all 
this without electrical manifestations. This 
is what I call Pallium, that is to say, those 
strata of which the superior is formed of Cir- 
Ice cloud* 
* Even In representing the stratus another error 
hus been commuted. In Howard's plate VI, pub¬ 
lished in Tillor.h's Phil. M<uj.. In 1803, ho represents 
this cloud as a ml»t spreading above a lake sur¬ 
rounded by hills. All succeeding meteorologists 
have misunderstood this pinto, and given Stratus as 
a series of bunds spread out at the horiscon. 
