The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 33, July, 1860: A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And PoliticsVarious
Science
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 06, No. 33, July, 1860: A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics
Various
American periodicals
This comes only from the Nimbus, which is quite unlike the others. It
puts on a dark gray color, has irregular transparent edges, and
increases rapidly so as to obscure the sky. It appears to absorb the
other clouds, to be a union of their differently electrified
particles, which are attracted to each other, form drops of water, and
descend as rain.
Of the first three forms we have three modifications or varieties. The
Cirro-Cumulus is a congeries of roundish little clouds in close
horizontal position, varying in size and roundness, and often, to use
the words of the poet Bloomfield, appearing as "The beauteous
semblance of a flock at rest."
The Cirro-Stratus is more compact than the Cirrus,--the strata being
inclined or horizontal. It is sometimes seen cutting the moon's disc
with a sharp line. The Cumulo-Stratus, or Twain Cloud, is denser than
the Cumulus, and more ragged in its outlines. It overhangs its base in
folds, and often bears perched on its summit some other form of cloud,
which inosculates itself with it. Sometimes a Cirro-Stratus cloud
comes along and fastens itself to it parasitically. It is one of our
most picturesque forms of clouds.
Within the last two years we have twice observed in the city of New
York, during the summer afternoons, large masses of clouds coming over
from the southwest, and hanging rather low, which could not be well
placed in any of the classes already described, or recognized as such
by meteorologists. They consisted of a great number of hemispherical
forms of large diameter, hanging vertically from a Stratus cloud or
plane above them, and to which they appeared attached. They were
regular in shape, and very distinct; they barely touched each other,
and were of a gray color. They might be compared to a hay-field turned
upside down, with innumerable hay-cocks hanging below it.
Unfortunately, the circumstances under which the spectacle was
observed did not; admit of any resort to the barometer, thermometer,
or anemometer. Should further observations verify these remarks, it
might perhaps be proper to style this variety the Hemispherical.
* * * * *
Dew is another atmospheric product. It is the condensation of the
warmer vapor of the atmosphere, in calm and serene nights, and in the
absence of clouds, by the cold surface of bodies on which it rests. In
some countries it is copious enough to supply the want of rain. The
earth radiates its own acquired heat, grows colder than the
atmosphere, and so condenses it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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