CHAPTER VII.

The counter-trade of the northern hemisphere ranges at different heights in different latitudes, in the same latitude at different seasons, and also upon different days of the same season; and, like the line of perpetual snow, has its greatest elevation in the tropics, descending gradually to the surface of the ocean at the poles. At the northern limit of the N. E. trades, it does not, ordinarily, approach the earth sufficiently near for decided reciprocal action. Hence, at that point, storms do not often originate; the winds are lighter and more variable, and calms are more frequent than at any point, except at the meeting and elevation of the trades, or in the polar regions. Doubtless this state of things is increased by the feebler action of north polar magnetism, and the irregular action of the longitudinal magnetic currents, evinced by the irregular, and often, feeble action of the trades, near their extreme limits. They are not unfrequently wholly wanting, near the northern limit, for several days in succession, and calms and baffling winds are found in their place--another effect of the irregular action of terrestrial magnetism, consequent upon the ever-changing transit of central activity from south to north, and from north to south. Upon the islands, however, and continents, which have elevated mountain peaks and ridges, especially if of volcanic origin and activity, which approach more nearly the path of the counter-trade, a different state of things exists. There, showers and gusts are frequent. Thus, upon the Sandwich Island, Kauai, the most northern one, which is within the region of the N. E. trade during ten months of the year, and upon its volcanic peaks and elevated table-lands, and north-easterly from them, over the district of Waioli, rain falls in abundance during the year, while the coastlines upon other portions of the island can not be cultivated without irrigation. (See Wilkes' Exploring Expedition, vol. iv. pp. 61 and 71; and American Journal of Science and Art, for May, 1847).

A like state of things, in degree, may be found upon the Canaries, and the more elevated of the West India Islands. The Cape de Verdes are an exception, and the Christian world are quite often called upon for contributions of provisions, to save the inhabitants of these islands from starvation. They lie at the northern limit of the equatorial belt, and for a period of two months only (July and August), are supplied with rain. If, from any cause, the belt does not move as far north as usual during any season, unbroken drought and famine are sure to overtake them. The islands contain some elevated peaks, and are of volcanic origin, but not of present volcanic activity, and the counter-trades as they issue from the equatorial belt at their highest elevation, are too far above them for reciprocal, influential action. If the islands could be placed 10 deg. further north, we should hear no more of drought or famine from them, and their quantity of rain and fertility would be not only more permanent, but much increased. Superadded to this, is the fact, that at that point the belt of rains precipitates feebly because the S. E. trade originates upon the southern part of the continent of Africa, and the N. E. mainly, upon the desert and the Barbary States--and both are sparingly supplied with moisture.

The same state of things is strikingly obvious upon continents wherever the mountains are sufficiently elevated, even within the trade-wind region. Thus, in South America, the Andean ranges are of great elevation, and spurs and table-lands extend from them a considerable distance to the eastward. There, the S. E. and N. E. trades of the Atlantic meet in very considerable volumes, and not only is the equatorial belt much wider than upon the Atlantic and Pacific, but the counter-trades are met upon the elevated peaks and mountain-ranges, and showers and storms on their eastern slopes and summits are frequent during the dry season--down even to the extra-tropical belt. I have already said that it was probable that the great elevation of the Andes diverted and turned south a portion of the N. E. counter-trade which would otherwise pass over the western coast of Peru.

The report of Lieutenant Herndon, which has come to my notice since that was written, states facts which strongly corroborate that opinion. It seems that the trades and counter-trades actually bank up, in their passage to the westward, against those mountains, and the true elevation of their eastern slopes can not be barometrically ascertained. (See report of the Exploration of the Amazon, p. 261). Lieutenant Herndon says:

"I was surprised to find the temperature of boiling water at Egas to be but 208 deg. 2', the same within 2' of a degree that it was at a point one day's journey below Tingo Maria, which village is several hundred miles above the last rapids of the Huallaga river; at Santa Cruz, two days above the mouth of the Huallaga, it was 211 deg. 2'; at Nauta, three hundred and five miles below this, it was 211 deg. 3'; at Pebas, one hundred and seventy miles below Nauta, 211 deg. 1'. I was so much surprised at these results that I had put the apparatus away, thinking that its indications were valueless; but I was still more surprised, upon making the experiment at Egas, to find that the temperature of the boiling water had fallen 3 deg. below what it was at Santa Cruz, thus giving to Egas an altitude of fifteen hundred feet above that village, which is situated more than a thousand miles up stream of it. I continued my observations from Egas downward, and found a regular increase in the temperature of the boiling water until our arrival at Para, where it was 211 deg. 5'.

"From an after-investigation, I am led to believe that the cause of this phenomenon arises from the fact that the trade-winds are dammed up by the Andes, and that the atmosphere in those parts is, from this cause, compressed, and, consequently, heavier than it is further from the mountains, though over a less elevated portion of the earth. The discovery of this fact has led me to place little reliance in the indications of the barometer for elevation, at the eastern foot of the Andes. It is reasonable, however, to suppose that this cause would no longer operate at Egas, nearly one thousand miles below the mouth of the Huallaga."

The report of Lieutenant Gibbon, is also exceedingly instructive. Separating from Lieutenant Herndon at Tarma, upon the Andes, he pursued a southern course, along the eastern slopes of the chain from 11 deg. 30' south, almost to 18 deg. south, at Ohuro, making a journey of about 7 deg. 30' of latitude.

A considerable portion of this journey was over eastern and less elevated portions of the Andes; but little below, however, the line of perpetual snow. Here, during the dry season, he met with frequent showers and fogs from the eastward, but left them as he descended into the plains upon the table-land. There he found the dry season more distinctly marked; but occasional irregularities were found upon the table-lands, as every where upon corresponding elevations. The S. E. trades, however, were there obvious, during the dry season, notwithstanding the irregularities. The rainy season, from December to May, he spent at Cochabamba, and at its close he traveled north down the Madeira and its tributaries, to the Amazon. Although scarcely consistent with my prescribed limits, I can not forbear making a few extracts. Thus, when on the mountains, east of Huanvelica, in the N. E. counter-trade, he says:

"Our course is to the eastward. The snow-capped mountains are in sight to the west. Temperature of a spring 48 deg.; air 44 deg.. Lightning flashes all around us; as the wind whirls from north-east to south-west, rain and snow-flakes become hail, half the size of peas. Thunder roars and echoes through the mountains; the mules hang their heads, and travel slowly; the thinly-clad aboriginal walks shivering as he drives the train ahead; the dark cumulus cloud seems to wrap itself around us."

Again, at the Bombam Post-house, in the focus of change from cirrus to cumulus, and stratus, and storm:

"The winds are very gentle, and curl the cirrus or hairy clouds in most graceful shapes about the hoary-headed Andes, in rich and delicate clusters; when the peak is concealed, all but the blue tinge below the snow, we see a natural bridal vail. An easterly wind lifts and turns them to dark, cumulus clouds, settled on the frosty crown, like an old man's winter cap; the physiognomical expression is that of anger. The change is accompanied by thunder, and seems to command all around to clothe themselves for storms. The cold rain comes down in fine drops upon us; the day grows darker, and the clouds press close upon the earth."

During an excursion east of Cuzco--

"Turning from the river, we ascend a steep ridge of mountains--the eastern range at last. A heavy mist wafts upward as the winds drive it against the side of the Andes, so that our view is shortened to a few hundred yards. We hope the curtain will rise that we may view the productions of the tropical valley below; but the mist thickens, and the day gets dark with heavy, heaped-up black clouds; a rain-storm follows. The grasses are thrifty, and the top of the ridge covered with a thick sod. By barometer, we stand eleven thousand one hundred feet above the level of the sea."

In May following, having spent the rainy season in Cochabamba, he travels north--

"Our route from Tarma to Oruro was south. We traveled ahead of the sun. In December, when we arrived in Cochabamba, the sun had just passed us. As soon as he did so, the rains descended heavily on this side of the ridge; it was impossible to proceed. The roads were flooded, the ravines impassable, and the arrieros put off their journey until the dry season had commenced. After the sun passed the zenith of Cochabamba, and had fairly moved the rain belt after him toward the north, then we came out from under shelter, and are now walking behind the rain belt in dry weather, while the inhabitants are actively employed in tending their crops."

So on the north of the equatorial belt, along the whole line of the Andes, up to the northern boundary of the desert valley of the Gila, rain falls on the high mountain-ranges, owing to the contiguity of the counter-trade and the diversion of showers to the north, along their eastern sides.

During the survey of the boundary line between Mexico and California, etc., by the commission under Mr. Bartlett, it became necessary to find some spot where water and grass were abundant, for the head quarters of the commission. This was found, and could only be found, upon the Mimbres Mountains, at an old abandoned Spanish copper mine, 7,000 or 8,000 feet above the level of the sea, surrounded with peaks of still greater height. These elevated ranges were within influential distance of the counter-trade, and here snow fell in the winter, from the extra-tropical belt, and rain, in showers, in summer, at the period of the most northerly extension of the tropical belt; when fifteen miles off, in the valley, it was unbroken drought. Mr. Bartlett thus describes it in his Personal Narrative:

"We reached this district on the 2d of May. Vegetation was then forward, though there had been no rain. But it must be remembered that during the winter there is snow, and hence a good deal of moisture in the earth when the spring opens. The months of May and June were moderately warm. On the third of July the first rain fell. It then came in torrents, accompanied by hail, and lasted three or four hours. Many of our adobe houses were deluged with water, and the mountain-sides exhibited cataracts in every direction. The Arroyo, which passes through the village, and which furnishes barely water enough for our party and the animals, became so much swollen as to render it difficult to cross; and, by the time it had received the numerous mountain torrents, which fall into it within a mile from our camp, it became impassable for wagons, or even mules. The dry gullies became rapid streams, five or six feet deep, and sometimes fifty feet or more across. On this day, a party, in coming to the copper mines, from the plain below, where there had been no rain, found themselves suddenly in a region overflowing with water, so that their progress was arrested, and they were obliged to wait until the flood had subsided. After this we had occasional showers, during the months of July and August."

The location of this mountain station is near the thirty-third degree of north latitude, while the northern limit of the equatorial belt, nowhere, except upon the mountain ranges and table-lands of Mexico, extends above 25 deg..

There, for the reason we have been considering, it does extend further north during July and August, in occasional showers, and in the vicinity of Mount Picacho, Mr. Bartlett met one of its mountain thunder-storms on the 13th of July, on his return south through Mexico, in latitude 32 deg., in the following year. (Personal Narrative, vol. ii. p. 285). These showers originated in strata of counter-trade, which had followed up along the eastern side of the mountains and not from strata which had crossed them and curved to the eastward, as is shown by the course of progression of the showers.

Let us look, in this connection, at a fact or two of great interest, though not directly connected with the point in hand. The southern limit of the extra-tropical belt in winter, on the Pacific coast of North America, is in the vicinity of San Diego, at about 32 deg.. In summer, that limit is carried up above Astoria, which is in latitude 46 deg. 11'--about 14 deg.--yet New Mexico receives little if any rain in winter in the vicinity of Albuquerque, but does receive a limited supply of about seven inches in summer and autumn, five and a half inches of which falls in June, July, and August. Albuquerque is in latitude 35 deg. 13', below the southern summer limit of the extra-tropical belt, and north of the northern limit of the equatorial belt. This anomaly is explained by the extension west over northern New Mexico, of the extreme western edge of our concentrated counter-trade, by reason of its issuing further west from the equatorial belt in its northern extension in the summer months. This western edge, in curving to the east, north-east of New Mexico, covers the north-western States, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, etc., and furnishes them that great excess of summer precipitation which is a peculiarity of their climate; and its absence further east in winter, and the very great elevation of the Rocky Mountains and other ranges over which their ordinary counter-trade of that season curves, account for the absence of much precipitation and snow there, or over the valley of the Rio Grande in New Mexico, in winter.

We may now see, too, why the western coast and the Pacific region of the continent, below 45 deg., are so deficient in moisture. The S. E. trades, which arise from the western portion of the south Atlantic and the continent of South America, which, if it were not for the Andes chain, in their natural course, after passing the equatorial belt, would continue on to the north-west until they passed the limits of the N. E. trades, and curve in upon the western portion of our continent below 45 deg., and supply it bountifully with rain, are, in part, perhaps, diverted along the eastern side of those mountains to swell the volume of our counter-trade, and in part pass them, almost exhausted of their supply of moisture by their contiguous reciprocal action. Hence, too, the deficiency of precipitation at the base of the Andes, on the western side, and the peculiar and irregular character of the winds under the western lee of the Andean range. Baffling airs and bands of calms prevail on this portion of the Pacific, except where the mountains fall off, and then there is a westerly or south-westerly monsoon under the equatorial belt. Says Lieutenant Maury in his Charts, sixth edition, p. 731:

"The passage, under canvass, from Panama to California, as at present made, is the most tedious, uncertain, and vexatious that is known to navigators.

"My investigations have been carried far enough to show that at certain seasons of the year a vessel bound from Panama to California, must cross at least three, at some seasons four, such meetings of winds or bands of calms, before she can enter the region of the N. E. trades. Hence the tedious passage."

Such will ever be the state of things on this continent and upon the eastern Pacific, so long as the S. E. counter-trades are compelled to pass over the mountain chain of South and Central America.

Again, if we examine carefully the belt or zone of extra-tropical rains, we shall find that the focus of greatest precipitation is considerably north of its southern limit, and that, other things being equal, this focus travels north in summer, and gives to higher latitudes their needed summer rains. This is very apparent upon the north-western portion of our continent, as the following table will show:

+----------------------------------------------------------- | | Lat. |Jan.|Feb.|Mar.|Apr.|May.|June.| | |-------|----|----|----|----|----|-----| |San Diego, Cal. |32 deg. 41'| 0.3| 1.7| 1.1| 0.9| 0.5| 0.0 | |San Francisco. |37 deg. 48'| 1.7| 0.5| 4.4| 2.1| 0.4| 0.0 | |Cant., Far W., Cal.|39 deg. 02'| 3.3| 0.6| 6.4| 2.2| 0.9| 0.0 | |Astoria, Oregon. |46 deg. 11'|27.0|10.9| 6.1| 4.4| 5.9| 2.6 | |Puget's S'd, Ore. |47 deg. 07'|11.8| 3.9| 4.7| 4.1| 0.8| 0.6 | |Sitka, Russ. Am. |57 deg. 3'| 2.5| 9.6| 3.5| 3.3| 1.9| 5.9 | +-----------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------+ |July.|Aug.|Sept.|Oct.| Nov.|Dec.|Year.| |-----|----|-----|----|-----|----|-----| | 0.0 | 0.2| 0.0 | 0.1| 1.5 | 3.4| 9.6| | 0.0 | 0.0| 0.4 | 0.6| 3.0 | 5.5| 18.8| | 0.0 | 0.0| 0.3 | 0.1| 3.5 | 4.6| 21.9| | 0.0 | 2.3| 1.9 | 6.7|13.2 | 6.2| 87.2| | 0.5 | 1.3| 1.6 | 3.6| 5.9 | 6.1| 44.8| | 3.7 |10.1|14.8 |12.7| 7.4 | 4.2| 79.5| ---------------------------------------+

The figures are for inches and tenths of an inch of rain.

Thus, it will be seen that in January, when the southern line is at San Diego, at the south line of California, the focus of precipitation is over Oregon; and that in August and September when the southern line is carried up and over Oregon, the focus has traveled north to Sitka, and that it is always at least 10 deg. north of the southern line of the belt upon that coast. The increased quantities of rain which fall at the focus of precipitation there, from Oregon up, are doubtless much enhanced by the equatorial oceanic current which flows over opposite that part of the continent. A like effect, precisely, is produced in Europe. The quantity of rain which falls at Bergen, in Norway, being 87-61/100 inches per year, more than three times the average for that continent.

The difference shown in the foregoing table, between Astoria and Puget's Sound, is owing to the fact that the latter lies in the interior and within the coast range of mountains, while Astoria is situated at the mouth of the Columbia River, with an open view of the ocean.

A like comparative increase of precipitation in northern latitudes, in summer, is found every where varying according to the local influences which operate in the particular case. Thus,

------------------------------------------------------------------------ There falls in |Winter.|Spring.|Summer.|Aut'mn.| Year. ---------------------------------|-------|-------|-------|-------|------ Burlington, Vt., lat. 44 deg. 20' | 5.7 | 7.3 | 11.4 | 9.8 | 33.9 Albany, N. Y., lat. 42 deg. 39' | 8.3 | 9.8 | 12.3 | 10.3 | 40.7 Minnesota, Iowa, lat. 41 deg. 28' | 7.3 | 12.3 | 17.4 | 11.7 | 48.8 St. Peters'g, Russ., lat. 59 deg. 56'| 3.89 | 3.20 | 5.70 | 4.71 | 17.51 Pekin, China, lat. 40 deg. | .54 | 3.35 | 18.80 | 2.29 | 25.68 ------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pekin lies in the northern part of China, and would have a much larger fall of rain from a concentrated counter-trade, but for the numerous mountain-ranges which intersect its path in winter, but over which it passes at a greater elevation during the summer--a peculiarity from which the eastern section of this country is most remarkably and happily free.

Thus, it is obvious that the focus of precipitation in the zone of extra tropical rains, is some 8 deg. to 12 deg. north of its southern line, and travels with the whole machinery in its annual transit north and south.

It is a question of some difficulty, perhaps, whether this focus is increased by the increase of magnetic action at this point, for both the line of descent of the counter-trade, and the focus of magnetic action, are carried up in a like manner, and for a like cause, and, in all probability, both concur in the result.

There is exceeding wisdom in this provision for the gradual subsidence of the counter-trade, and gradual increase of magnetic intensity, and consequent gradual precipitation. On the European continent, and over western Asia, there are 50 deg. of latitude to be supplied with moisture by this polar belt of rains. If the focus of precipitation was at its southern border, the counter-trade would be deprived of its moisture at that point, and little would reach the more northern portions of the globe which are to be supplied by it. But the movement of the whole machinery carries up the southern line from the south boundaries of the Barbary States on to the Mediterranean and portions of southern Europe, and the focus of precipitation and of near approach of the counter-trade to the earth, being situated far north of the southern line, is carried up correspondingly, while the combination of the moisture with the atmosphere by south polar magnetism and electricity, and the gradual descent of the counter-trade, enable it to resist, to some extent, the influence of north polar magnetism and cold, and thus retain portions of its moisture for distribution in the polar regions.

The elevation of the counter-trade above the earth varies in the same latitude with the variations in the phenomena of the weather. An attentive observation of the clouds of our climate will soon satisfy any one of this, after he has become familiar with them, so as to distinguish with certainty the clouds of the trade. Its range, in this country, is from 3,000 feet, or less, to 12,000 feet above the earth, and its depth with us probably, from 6,000 to 8,000 feet. Gay-Lussac, in his scientific experimental balloon ascension, the first of that character ever made, except an imperfect one just previous, by himself and Biot, found it at about 12,000 feet over Paris, and about 4,000 feet in depth. It is detected by the thermometer when much elevated.

The atmosphere grows cool as it is ascended on mountains, or by balloons. The rate of cooling is ordinarily about 1 deg. of Fahrenheit for every 300 feet. If it were not for the equatorial current, this progressive decrease of temperature would doubtless be perfectly uniform. Of Gay-Lussac's ascension, on this point it was said:

"At forty minutes after 9 o'clock, on the morning of the 15th September, 1804, the scientific voyager ascended, as before, from the garden of the repository of models. The barometer then stood at 30.66 English inches, the thermometer at 82 deg. Fahrenheit, and the hygrometer at 57-1/2 deg.. The sky was unclouded, but misty.

"During the whole of this gradual ascent, he noticed, at short intervals, the state of the barometer, the thermometer, and the hygrometer. Of these observations, amounting in all to twenty-one, he has given a tabular view. We regret, however, that he has neglected to mark the times at which they were made, since the results appear to have been very materially modified by the progress of the day. It would likewise have been desirable to have compared them with a register, noted every half hour, at the Observatory. From the surface of the earth to the height of 12,125 feet, the temperature of the atmosphere decreased regularly, from 82 deg. to 47 deg. 3' by Fahrenheit's scale; but afterward it increased again, and reached to 53 deg. 6' at the altitude of 14,000 feet; evidently owing to the influence of the warm currents of air which, as the day advanced, rose continually from the heated ground. From that point the temperature diminished, with only slight deviations from a perfect regularity. At the height of 18,636 feet the thermometer subsided to 32 deg. 9', on the verge of congelation; but it sunk to 14 deg. 9' at the enormous altitude of 22,912 feet above Paris, or 23,040 feet above the level of the sea, the utmost limit of the balloon's ascent."

The high range of the barometer indicated a very considerable elevation of the trade at the time Gay-Lussac made his ascension. I am not aware that it has since been found at so great an elevation, in so high a latitude, though it is undoubtedly elevated by the interposition of a large volume of N. W. air, upon some occasions, to nearly the same altitude with us.

In the extract in relation to the ascension of Gay-Lussac, we have another of the thousand hastily-adopted and absurd hypotheses connected with the caloric theory. It is obviously and utterly impossible that in addition to the ordinary accumulation of heat at the surface of the earth "as the day advanced"--that is, during the forenoon, warm currents should ascend, unobserved by Gay-Lussac during an ascent of 12,000 feet--not affecting in the least so large an intervening body of the atmosphere or his thermometer, and in such immense volumes as to increase the warmth of a stratum of 4,000 feet in depth, an average of 3 deg. of Fahrenheit, and to the extent of 6 deg. at the center.

Very few balloon ascensions have been made with a view to scientific and accurate observation. But other aeronauts have met the counter-trade at different altitudes, and in both clear and stormy weather.

Recently, in 1852, four ascensions were made in England, under the direction of the Kew Observatory Committee, of the British Association. I copy from the August number of the "London, Edinburg, and Dublin Magazine," for 1853, the following condensed amount of the result:

"The ascents took place on August 17th, August 26th, October 21st, and November 10th, 1852, from the Vauxhall Gardens, with Mr. C. Green's large balloon.

"The principal results of the observations may be briefly stated as follows:

"Each of the four series of observations shows that the progress of the temperature is not regular at all heights, but that at a certain height (varying on different days) the regular diminution becomes arrested, and for the space of about 2,000 feet the temperature remains constant, or even increases by a small amount. It afterward resumes its downward course, continuing, for the most part, to diminish regularly throughout the remainder of the height observed. There is thus, in the curves representing the progression of temperature with height, an appearance of dislocation, always in the same direction, but varying in amount from 7 deg. to 12 deg..

"In the first two series, viz.: August 17th and 26th, this peculiar interruption of the progress of temperature is strikingly coincident with a large and rapid fall in the temperature of the dew-point. The same is exhibited in a less marked manner on November 10th. On October 21st a dense cloud existed at a height of about 3,000 feet; the temperature decreased uniformly from the earth up to the lower surface of the cloud. When a slight rise commenced, the rise continuing through the cloud, and to about 600 feet above its upper surface, when the regular descending progression was resumed. At a short distance above the cloud, the dew-point fell considerably, but the rate of diminution of temperature does not appear to have been affected in this instance in the same manner as in the other series; the phenomenon so strikingly shown in the other three cases being perhaps modified by the existence of moisture in a condensed or vesicular form.

"It would appear, on the whole, that about the principal plane of condensation heat is developed in the atmosphere, which has the effect of raising the temperature of the higher air above what it would have been had the rate of decrease continued uniformly from the earth upward."

These gentlemen do not adopt the absurd explanation of the French philosophers; they account for the phenomenon by supposing heat to be developed at that particular part of the atmosphere; but they are equally wide of the mark. They found the excess of heat there to the extent of 7 deg. to 12 deg., and on days when there was no condensation, or other assignable cause for its development.

The temperature of the counter-trade partakes, doubtless, of the temperature of the adjoining strata at its upper and lower portion, and has never been found much, if any, higher than 60 deg. at the center. Nor could it be expected. The trade, in its upward curving course, within the tropics, attains a considerable altitude where the atmosphere is comparatively cold, and necessarily loses a portion of its heat there, and during its northern flow. Probably its central summer range, in the latitude of Paris, is not far from 55 deg., and with us 60 deg..

The contrast between the trade and the surrounding atmosphere, in winter, is much more striking, and this has been observed particularly upon the Brocken of the Alps, and in the polar regions.

"In all seasons the temperature is higher on the Brocken, on a serene, than on a cloudy day, and, in the month of January, the serene days were warmer than at Berlin." (Kaemtz's Meteorology, by Walker, p. 217.--Note.)

As the portion of the counter-trade, which does not become depolarized--in diminished volume--progresses toward the polar regions, it settles nearer the earth, and within the Arctic circle is found but little way above it. Thus, in December, 1821, Parry, at Winter Island, in latitude 66 deg. 11', flew a kite, with a thermometer attached, to the height of 379 feet, and found that the temperature, instead of falling 1-1/4 deg., the usual ratio of decrease, rose 3/4 of a degree.

The same thing was observed at Spitzbergen, in latitude 77 deg. 30' north, and at Bosekop, latitude 69 deg. 58', by a scientific commission, and by means of kites, confined balloons, and the ascent of elevations.

"In winter the temperature goes on increasing with the height, up to a certain limit, which is variable, according to the different atmospheric circumstances, the influence of which is not yet very exactly known. The hour of the day appears to be indifferent, since there exists no thermometric diurnal variation in the strata of the surface. The mean of thirty-six experiments, made with kites, or with captive balloons, at Bosekop, latitude 69 deg. 58' north, has given a mean rate of increase of 1 deg. 6' for the first hundred meters. Beyond this limit, and even beyond the first 60 or 80 meters, the temperature again becomes decreasing, at first very slowly, but afterward the decrease is accelerated. The observations that have been made on the flanks, or on the summits, of mountains, during the same expeditions, entirely confirm these results. The cooling influence of a soil, that radiates its own heat for several weeks, without receiving any thing on the part of the sun, in compensation of its losses, the influence of counter-currents from above, coming from the west and the south-west, with a high temperature, account for this anomaly, which, in winter, represents the normal state of the most northern parts of the European continent." (Walker's Kaemtz, p. 515.--Note.)

Mr. Walker is the only author, so far as I know, who has suspected the true cause of the phenomenon, viz.: "currents from above coming from the west and south-west, with a high temperature;" but the caloric theory "sticks like a burr," and he adheres also to the idea that a snow-clad surface, in the absence of the sun, can aid, by radiation, in warming the atmosphere for a distance of several hundred yards above it, increasing the warmth as the distance from the earth increases!

This contrast between the counter-trade and the adjacent atmosphere, in winter, in latitudes as low as that of the Brocken, is probably heightened by the increased warmth of the former, at that season. The S. E. trades then form under a vertical sun, and the difference of temperature can not be less than from 6 deg. to 8 deg.. Not unfrequently in winter and spring the rain will fall with a temperature of 50 deg. to 55 deg., when the atmosphere near the earth is 10 deg. or 20 deg. or more, below those points; and it is frozen to every object upon which it falls. The trade stratum, from which it descends, is not warmed by "radiation" or by ascending currents from a snow-clad surface, and during a cloudy day; nor by a "development of heat" at that particular altitude, but it has brought its heat from the South Atlantic, and imparts it to the rain which forms within it. There is every reason to believe that the counter-trade flows north in a regular descending plane, not materially differing from that of the line of perpetual snow. The descent of the latter is well ascertained to be from about 16,000 feet at the equator, to the surface at the poles. The plane of the counter-trade is probably much the same, varying over different localities, from the varied action between it and the earth which we are considering; and probably both correspond with the increase of magnetic intensity.

Lieutenant Maury, in an able and original article upon the circulation of the atmosphere, conceives the bands of comparative calms at the northern limits of the trades, which he appropriately terms the "Calms of Cancer," to be nodes in the circulation of the atmosphere, and that the upper or counter-trade here decends and becomes a surface wind from the S. W., as the N. E. trade is a surface wind; and that an upper current from the poles approaches and descends at the same node, to make the N. E. trade. But it is evident he adopted that conclusion too hastily, as he obviously did the conclusion that the calms of the horse latitudes were a type of all. We have seen that the latter are increased by a diversion of the counter-trade, and that they are avoided by making easting. So it may be observed that our upper current is a S. W. current, and no northerly upper current is visible, or exists over the country, however it may be in western Europe and the North Pacific, on the west of the magnetic poles, where cold, dry northerly and north-easterly winds are found. The origin and progress of storms withal demonstrates that no such node can exist.

Two points have been made in relation to the course of the counter-trade in the tropics, and are relied upon to show its progress there to the N. E., which deserve consideration.

In the first place, it is well known that "rain dust" falls in considerable quantities on the western coast of Africa, particularly about the Cape de Verde Islands, and also upon the Mediterranean and south-western Europe, where it is termed "sirocco dust."

"This dust," says Lieutenant Maury, "when subjected to microscopic examination, is found to consist of infusoria and organisms, whose habitat (place of abode) is not Africa, but South America, and in the S. E. trade-wind region of South America. Professor Ehrenberg has examined specimens of sea dust, from the Cape de Verdes and the regions thereabout, from Malta, Genoa, Lyons, and the Tyrol, and he has found such a similarity among them as would not have been more striking had these specimens been all taken from the same pile.

"South American forms he recognizes in all of them; indeed, they are the prevailing form in every specimen he has examined.

"It may, I think, be now regarded as an established fact, that there is a perpetual upper current of air from South America to north Africa, and that the volume of air in these upper currents, which flows to the northward, is nearly equal to the volume which flows to the southward with the N. E. trade-winds, there can be no doubt," etc.

Now, it is doubtless true that this dust is transported in a counter-trade, and that such dust is found in South America, and is taken up there by sand-spouts, like those of the ocean in form and action. Both Humboldt and Gibbon have graphically described them. Yet I do not think the point well taken. South-eastward of the Cape de Verdes, where the surface-trades--which, becoming counter-trades, pass over these islands, and, recurving, pass over the Mediterranean and south-western Europe--should originate, there is a vast extent of unexplored continent in the same latitude as the portion of South America where the dust is found; and the same dry seasons, and the same spouts, in all probability, exist in both. Until it be shown that such forms have no "habitat" in central and southern and unexplored Africa, upon the same latitudes as in South America, it may fairly be presumed that the dust is taken up there. Indeed, the curve upon which this dust is found to fall, in the greatest quantities, is very remarkable, and corresponds remarkably with the law of curvature of the counter-trade we have considered, and with the progress of a storm upon that coast, and over the Mediterranean, investigated by Colonel Reid. (See Reid, on Storms and Variable Winds, p. 276.) This curve clearly indicates the origin of the dust in South Africa.

The second point is, that ashes from the volcanos of Mexico and Central America have fallen to the north-east of the place where they were ejected. Mr. Redfield has grouped these instances of volcanic eruption usually cited, and I copy from him:

"We learn from Humboldt, that in the great eruption of Jorullo, a volcano of southern Mexico, which is 2,100 feet above the sea, in latitude 18 deg. 45', longitude 161 deg. 30', the roofs of the houses in Queretaro, more than 150 miles north, 37 deg. east from the volcano, were covered with the volcanic dust. In January, 1845, an eruption took place in the volcano of Cosiguina, on the Pacific coast of Central America, in latitude 13 deg. north, and having an elevation of 3,800 feet, the ashes from which fell on the island of Jamaica, distant 730 miles north, 60 deg. east from the volcano. The elevated currents by which volcanic ashes are thus transported are seldom or never of a transient or fortuitous character; and these results, therefore, afford us one of the best indications of their general course. Thus, the progress of the higher portion of the trade-wind was marked by the eruption of Tuxtla, latitude 18 deg. 30', longitude 95 deg., which covered the houses in Vera Cruz with ashes, at the distance of 80 miles north, 55 deg. west, and also at Perote, 160 miles north, 60 deg. west. The ashes from the volcano, at St. Vincent, which fell at Barbadoes, and east of that island, in 1812, mark the course of a current from the westward, which appears there at times, in the region of clouds, and may, perhaps, be connected with the permanent winds on the Pacific coast of Mexico."

As to one of the instances cited in the foregoing paragraph, that of Tuxtla, it may be laid out of the case--the direction conforming substantially to the assumed course of the counter-trade at that point. St. Vincent lies W. N. W., or nearly so, of Barbadoes, and a N. W. or westerly surface-wind, prior to, and during storms, is common in the West Indies as the N. E. is here--both alike, blowing in opposition to the progressive course of the storm. There is nothing strange or peculiar, therefore, respecting that instance, or the existence of variable and especially S. W. currents, between the trades, with occasional partial condensation.

The falling of the ashes from Cosiguina, upon Jamaica, has long and often been cited, as proof that in the West Indies the prevailing upper currents run from the S. W. But it has been ascertained that, during the same eruption, ashes fell 700 miles to the westward, on the deck of the Conway, a vessel then upon the Pacific Ocean. That case, therefore, does not prove the absence of the S. E. counter-trade at the time, but only the presence of another, and a different current above or below it--and it may have been either, and transient.

So of the Jorullo instance. Investigation would probably have shown that ashes fell to the N. W., and that they were carried N. E. by a transient S. W. wind produced by the existence of a storm to the eastward, or one of those states of partial condensation of the counter-trade which often produce currents at greater distances without a storm. Not one of these cases disproves the existence of a S. E. counter-trade, and the invariable N. W. progression of the storms of those latitudes demonstrates it.

Occasional anomalous currents, depending upon storm action at considerable distance, are found in our atmosphere, and doubtless are there also. Thus, although the N. W. wind is almost invariably a surface wind, I have, in a few instances, seen a N. W. set at a considerable elevation, converging toward a peculiarly stormy state of atmosphere far south of us, about the period of the spring equinox. And so in one or two instances I think I have seen light cirro-stratus clouds above the counter-trade, when it ran very low, setting from the N. E., although the usual and almost invariable location of the N. E. wind is below the counter-trade and the stratus clouds of the storm. Aeronauts, too, have found these secondary currents beneath a serene and cloudless sky. Indeed, the S. E. counter-trade doubtless often induces a thin secondary current of S. W. wind between itself and the surface-trade, in the same manner that similar currents are induced with us, and every where.

A question arises here of considerable interest, which, I confess, I can not answer to my own satisfaction. It is, whether there be, or not, an eastern progression of the body of the atmosphere above the machinery of distribution. I have thought there was, and that in set fair weather I had seen a peculiar kind of cirro-cumulus cloud, in patches, the small cumuli very distinct and rounded, moving due east, which indicated such a current. But I am not satisfied, from my own observation, that it is so, nor is it easy to determine the question. The moisture of evaporation rarely, if ever, ascends to any considerable elevation, and the upper strata must be very dry. Hence, condensation, if it takes place, is thin, and perhaps often undiscernable. Investigations upon mountains prove little, for the winds of the inferior strata rush up their sides and over them. It is an open question, and future observation may solve it. The prevailing opinion seems to be that there is. If the theory of Oersted, in relation to the circular currents of a magnet, be true, there should be such a progression produced by opposite secondary currents, unless, indeed, it be also true that those currents are inoperative at so great a distance, or their influence barely suffices to retain the attenuated atmosphere in its place. Perhaps the investigations of Ampere conflict with it. But it is worth while, I think, for philosophers to inquire whether the transverse position of the needle upon the wire is not the effect of the central longitudinal currents, conforming to the circular currents of the wire, and whether it is not owing to the production of the same currents in a globe by the circular currents of Ampere, that the globe is magnetized, and the needles made to dip.