SHAPE OF CLOUDS. 
103 
in tliin sheets with ragged edges and peninsular points. 
Sometimes it scuds along in the wind in front of other 
clouds. 
In the cold atmosphere far above the earth’s smoke 
and dust, the vapor of the cirrus is frozen into fine 
spicules of ice that refiect brilliantly the unadulterated 
sunshine. It is so thin that it casts no shadow and is 
seldom visible in the midday sun. Its altitude enables 
it to catch the first ray of the morning. My observa¬ 
tions lead me to believe that it usually takes an east 
and west position in this part of the country. 
Sometimes the cirrus settles down somewhat and 
takes on a stratified appearance, stringy, and stretching 
out like a great net. Still it is too thin to cast shad¬ 
ows, but in its filmy mists the light is displayed, as the 
beautiful halos of the moon and the mock suns or sun- 
dogs, as they are commonly called. When it settles still 
lower it takes on a patchy appearance, reminding one 
of cumulus fragments, sometimes resembling floes of 
ice, and at other times the spots on a mackerel, and 
hence called the “ mackerel sky.” 
We have therefore three kinds of this cloud : the 
cirrus, cirro-stratus, and the cirro-cumulus. Although 
they appear to be almost stationary, they fly along at 
the rate of eighty to ninety miles an hour. 
The cumulus are the Himalayas of the heavens. 
Their broad bases are not much over a mile above 
the surface of the earth, although the tops sometimes 
reach up to a height of seven or eight miles, where 
the cold air touches them into frosty whiteness. The 
light-colored patches of cloud which career across the 
