®ESw 
EXCELSIOK 
tf.'t.OO HER YEAR. 
Single IVo., Eight Centa, 
FOR THE WEEK ENDING SATURDAY, JUNE 
(Filtered according to Act of Congress, in the year 18 Ti>. i.y I). I). T. Moore, In the Clerk’s Oitioe of the District Court Of the United States for the Southern District of New York.) 
Rlttforologiral 
is completely covered by a single 
tjH cloud, we mark unity, (1) and its 
| corresponding type. If, on the 
contrary, there is no cloud, we 
place 0. Wo repeat in torn the 
4 same operation in the three other 
' quadrants, from southeast, from 
r southwest, and from northwest. 
At times the quantity of clouds 
• associated with others of a dilfer- 
. cut nature is so small, consisting 
• 'i merely of fragments, that it would 
2 be extremely difficult to make a 
£ ; just, calculation, and then we mark 
2 isolated cloud of the corresponding 
type. During a continuous rain, 
• when the sky is completely enver- 
• . cd with a Pallio-cumulus, we are 
7 ~ sure to find above it a second 
stratum of Pallio cirrus which 
occasions this rain. So after this 
examination we write in each 
. =Y. ■ quadrant unity for these two 
. r ,; types, lint as soon as a breach' is 
. made in the stratum of radio. 
cumulus, then care must ho taken 
.ttgKura not to confound the quantity of 
IllSPili cloud corresponding to each of 
BBfil 1 ' 1 n8 ° two strata, which are per- 
ccived one after the other. With 
!l a *Tent,ion we come per- 
fectly to know each order of cloud 
psi^-rg and the space it occupies. 
- Direction of Hie Clonilo, 
We should note in another 
column the direction of each 
type of cloud corresponding to the first six¬ 
teen cardinal points of the compass. For 
this purpose, we must observe the space 
whence the cloud sets out, and that of the 
opposite horizon, where it is lost. When the 
cloud traverses the zenithal region the ob¬ 
servation can he easily made. There is 
only a single position which can give, rise 
to error by an effect of perspective, which 
takes place morning and evening, when 
_ the Cumuli are not removed from 
the limits of the horizon, where 
NEW CLASSIFICATION OF CLOUDS 
Instructions to l»e Used lit the Observation of 
CIoiuIh, mill ot the inferior itnil Superior 
Currents of the Atmosphere t Specially De¬ 
signed for Agriculturists nnd Seamen. 
BY PROF. AND UK POKY. 
Director of the Observatory of Havana. 
[Continued front page 329, Rural May 21.1 
VIII.—FUAOTO-CUMUI.es (POEY.) 
Wind-Cloud (See Plate I and II.)—The 
clouds which I have denominated Fi'acto- 
cumulus are isolated fragments of Cumulus, 
more or loss considerable, without deter¬ 
minate form, jagged at the edges, the lowest 
and most rapid of all, and whitish, grayish 
or slate-colored according to their density. 
As soon as an invisible storm has broken out 
in the distance, we see them moving with 
great rapidity, almost grazing the highest 
buildings and tallest trees ; their borders are 
excessively torn, and then they are of a 
whitish color, which contrasts strongly with 
the grayish stratum of superior Pallio-cumu- 
lus. They are visible day and night, and often 
traverse the firmament from northeast to 
southwest,without interruption, during many 
days; the sky above and in the intermediate 
spaces is found perfectly clear. In winter 
we see them appear alone under a blue sky, 
determining at their passage to the zenith 
discontinuous showers of rain, accompanied 
with strong gusts of wind, which occasion 
immediately a very slight elevation and 
oscillation in the barometric column. In 
the Antilles these clouds produce the disa¬ 
greeable winter rains, and in Europe the 
March storms. They generally follow the 
direction of the wind predominating at the 
surface of the earth. AVhen this wind is 
contrary to the direction of Fraclo-cum/ulus, 
it is not slow in taking the same course. 
A little before a storm or tempest arises, 
there appear a series of very small Fraeto- 
cumulus, which moves rapidly, almost to 
two-thirds of its height, along a considerable 
mass of Cumulus, which is stationed very 
often, as if immobile, near the southern hori¬ 
zon. Soon these Fcaeto - cumulus become 
more abundant, less rapid, and form a hori¬ 
zontal hand which cuts the Cumulus near its 
summit. (i J l, IV". b, IlutiAL New-Yorker 
M ay 21.) This appearance is a terrible sign 
for sailors, as it announces that .a squall is let 
loose. In fact, the Fcacto-cumulus becomes 
more and more developed; an exchange of 
the opposite electricities takes place between 
these, and the storm quickly arises. It is, 
therefore, the same little cloud, of which I 
have spoken above, that, returning then from 
the combat, comes now t,o offer new battle. 
The aggregation of Fracto - cumulus gives 
birth to Pallio-cumulus, increases and con¬ 
stantly maintains this stratum. 
Upon tlu> Nature of the Clouds Deduced f rom 
the Formation ol Halos, Coronas, and 
Rainbows, 
We cau further distinguish the nature of 
clouds by the optical phenomena to which 
they give rise, according as their intimate 
constitution is more or less connected with a 
certain degree of elasticity of aqueous vapor, 
in the state of vesicles and of snowy or gla¬ 
cial congelations of the strata corresponding 
to the formation of each type. Here are 
some facts which 1 have observed at Ha¬ 
vana, which it is important to verify in other 
regions: 
Generally speaking, Cirrus, more especial¬ 
ly Pallio-cirrus, gives rise to a great solar and 
lunar halo of 22° radius. When it is pro¬ 
duced by the sun, it sometimes presents the 
seven colors of the spectrum as in the rain¬ 
bow, although usually there is only a single 
internal tiutol orange, terminating at times in 
a little red. On the contrary, the great halo 
produced by the moon is almost always 
white, and only seldom do we perceive the 
same tint of orange, but without the red. 
JPl. I. and II.-IFBACrro-OTJMUUUtS (Foey) AVIJNI U-(JJ .O LTJJS 
ie lunar halo phere, without much altering the transpar- 
may he triple ency of the air, gives rise to the formation of 
rings with an a little halo. Their unique coloration, in 
J is yet more broum or russet, light or dark, as well as 
arely enough, their size, is intimately connected cither with 
the density of aqueous or elastic vapors or 
j only clouds their altitude; their dimensions may vary 
hut they do from the borders themselves of the lunar 
segments of disk up to 2° radius. A Ye find them in every 
of the frag- lunation, 
rant, upon each stratum and upon each type, 
instead of solely restricting ourselves to the 
ensemble of the sky, paying no attention to 
their nature, as has been hitherto every¬ 
where done. 
Here is the mode of proceeding:—We ex¬ 
plore the first quadrant, and if we find three 
different types of clouds,—for example, the 
Cirrus elevated, Cumulus at the horizon, 
and Fraclo-cumidus low and isolated,—we 
then that a cloud freely sets from 
east to west, or vice versa, either 
by the north or by the south, 
when it has rather an inclination 
from northeast, from northwest, 
from southeast, from southwest, 
or any other. If it is at sunrise 
or sunset, if the wind is from east 
to west, or yet if the vane remains 
stationary in one of these direc¬ 
tions, we may be certain that the 
Cumulus pursues this horizontal 
course perpendicularly to the me¬ 
ridian. 
Often it is very difficult to grasp 
the direction of Cirrus, because of 
their extreme slowness, the con¬ 
siderable quantity and great ex¬ 
tent of their filaments, which are 
oriented on every side. The at¬ 
tention must he principally fixed 
upon the side of the displacement 
of the ridge or central trunk 
whence is detached this multitude 
of hands and lateral filaments. 
The march of Cirrus is then al¬ 
most always in a longitudinal 
plane or parallel to the longer 
axis. By a law of perspective, the 
parallel hands appear to diverge 
from a point of the horizon, and 
on the other hand to converge to¬ 
wards another point diametrically 
judge one after the other, according to their , opposite; but the observation of the place 
extent in height and breadth, the space of convergence on the opposite horizon, 
which they occupy relatively to the 90° will also give the mode of orientation, 
comprised from north to east, and from the There is yet another optical illusion, 
horizon to the zenith of this quadrant. We against which, we must especially guard, in 
then write in its corresponding column or order not to commit, a very grave error; for 
0.5 ot Cirrus, a 0.9 of Cumulus, and a 0,2 of it appears each time that below a stratum of 
Pnicto-cumuius. If the quadrant examined superior and very slow Cirrus, we perceive a 
i*l. lit.— b f ice and Snow Clouds. 
CIKRO - STRATO - CUMULUS (POEY.) 
OBSICliVKIA ONLY IN 
Quantity ol Clouds. 
We measure by the eye the blue span of 
the sky, or the quantity of visible clouds, 
which can then he determined according to 
a conventional scale in decimal fractions 
from zero (0) to unity (i.) Rut it is prefer¬ 
able to take directly the quantity of clouds, 
aud to repeat this calculation for each quad- 
Pl. IV. — a, Snow and ton Clouds. , 
CIRR0 - CUMULUS - STRATUS (POEY.) 
CUBA. US" 1BG<L. 
rnents which traverse the lunar disk. These 
coronas are also prismatic, hut haviug a blue 
internal tint. 
The Pallio-cumulus and the Cumulus form 
neither halos nor coronas, but only rainbows, 
solar and lunar. In fine aqueous vapor 
extremely dissolved, elastic, uniformly dis¬ 
tributed in the higher regions of the atmos- 
BRANT N Y 
