216 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. M A Y , 191’9
Valley is wholly due to the occurrence of this peculiar ty e of nonconvective rainfall.
it might be ar ed that a comparison of the total amounts of raidfielivered by nonconvective rains with the total hourly frequency indicates that the rains of this type are frequent, but light, while in this discussion emphasis has been placed upon the heavy rainfalls de- livered b this class of storms. It is true that as regards the hour rate of precipitation, most of these rains are light, alt H ough.more than half of the heavy rains of 1 inch or more at. this station were of this type. Pre-
ci itation occumng a t the rate of 0.05 inch per hour is
a i g h t rain, but if it continues at that rate for 24 hours or more the accumulated depth amounts to a heavy rain. Typical storms of this class usually deliver heavy or excessive precipitation for 1 or 2 hours, while the actual duration of recipitation may estend over 12, 24,
ample, “excessive” precipitation was recorded for 2
hours 20 minutes, without a break, while rainfall was
recorded for 13. hours before i t reached the “esc.essive” rate, and continued for near1 three hours after it fell below the “excessive” rate. %his class of storm owes its importance chiefly to the fact that general recipita-
thunderstom rainfall, although it may occasionally be heavy, is much more localized. Figure 4 presents the total precipitation from two typical nonconvective sumnier rainstorms. These two storms were selected from 18 that had been charted, not because they were estrciiie t-ypes as regards the dis- tribution of precipitation, but on ac.count of the heavy rainfall delivered. These two eshihi t a.n ohservcd char- acteristic of a nuniber of the hea.vy rains of this c h s ,
viz, the precipitation decreases more rapidly froni the Rio Pecos westward than it does to the eastward, whereas one would naturally es ect 1iaav.y precipita-
of the tendency of the rain-bearing winds to be drinvn up that slope toward the LOW. 9 few storms, however, carried their heavy rainftiB clear to the crrst (J f the rangc flhnking the valley on the west.
. Moat of the rains that were charted showed B somewhat great.er north-and-south elongation of the prixipitatioii area than the two shown in figure 4. In the stornis where the heaviest precipitation was in the Cansdinn Valley, the center of the southwestern LOW was locatcd near southwestem New Mexico, thus bringing the flow of air from the Gulf directly up the Canadian Valley.
Floods at Roswell due to hmuy rcr?i.)u.
It is an interesting fact that all the serious floods of record in the vicinity of Roswell were caused by storms of the nonconvective type. A number of thunderstorms have delivered heavy rainfd, but in all cases of record
the were too localized to cause serious flood ccuidi tiims.
occurred since this station was established, thc notes
being copied verbatim froni the locd records. The precipitation given is that occurrin at Roswell, during the entire StOrIIi, which sometimes 5 asted more t,hnn 24
hours.
July 25, 1905, 2.75 inches. Flood in Iiondo at reservoir; lo\~lantls of North Spnng River under water.
September 1, 1908, ’1.12 inches. Hondo bank lull; IonlandR under water, pastures flooded.
April 26, 1911, 1.71 inches. Pastures and lowlands tlooded.
Ma 29 1911,1.66 inches. Hondo out of banks, overflowing through city, Towhnds under water.
or 36 hours. I n t f e storm of August 7-8, 1916, for cs-
tion is delivered over the upper Pecos Val P ey while
tion over the western slope of t ! e valley on account
Fo s owing is an,annotated list of the fioods wliich have
July 24, 1911,0.58 inch. High water in Hondo; intake at dam gave wa ; flood waters also coming down Rocky Arroya; Berrendos bank- fulc bridge at Urton’s 4 feet under mtex.
[In this storm the heaviest recipltatlon was north of the station and between Ros- well and the Capitan Younta%s.]
June 12, 1913, 1 inch. Flood conditions in Rio Pecos; water 2.7 feet above flood stage.
October 25, 1914, 2.24 inches. No high water in Hondo; Pecos reported bank-full ; lowlands along North Spring and Berrendoe Rivers under water.
April 17, 1915, 1.91 inches. Lowlands under water; intake at Hondo Reservior gave way, Hondo overran its banks along ib entire course, flooding the city (Roewell) with 2 to 3 feet of water on the streets; basements and many loner floors flooded, including Federal building; several residences partly undermined. Cattle companies report thousands of sheep and large number of cattle drowned; fences nnd bridges ewe It away: boating on the businem streeta the popular pastinie of the day.
Streeta running curb-full; North Spring and Berrendw bottoms under several feet of water; thousands of birda drowned by over two holm excessive downpour; some bridges gone along the Berrendns. washouts reported on railroad; loss of live stock alight.
There dso were a number of serious floods during the yrnrs prior to 1905. cnnccrning which no reliable infnrnia- t.ion is nvailaldc. One, which occurrcd sonic time dur-
dugust S. 1916. 5.57 inches.
Flood in Rio Pecos below highKay bridge.
ing the carly fall of 1901. was of greater that of ,Ipril 17, 1915, during which new channel ovcr part of its (wurse through the city.
FIG. 5.-Average pressure gradient olSummer (MIay-September) over the southwestem United States (- - - -) contrasted with the arerago pressure distribution in the c s e of 5 typical nonconvrctive rains at HmwAl, N. Mex. (-1.
It should be added, in conclusion, that the suninier type of cyc.lonic rainfall is quite distinct from a winter type in the I’ecos Valley, which is produced by the admix- ture of cold air from a winter ~IIOH with warmer and moister air that had previously moved in from the Gulf region. This class of winter storms rarely yields mor’e than light precipitation, in the forin of slow, cold, and clisngreeahle rain in the late Fall and early Spring, aJrd snow in winter. They are also different froni the rains produced by the eastward movement of a LOW. across southern New Mesico. This latter type occurs during the Winter arid Spring. being of most frequent occiirrence in March and A ril.
occurs at this station in thc months of A ril and October.
that began as the suniiiier typc uf nonconvective rain, and toward their end dt~gen~mted into the fiixt-nained winter type.
Eveiy type o r rainfall known to eastern New Mesic0
A number of rains have bern noted in t E cse two months
2i8 MON!FHLY WEATHEk BEVIEW. May, 1917
waa carried 900 feet. During the tornado of April 16,
1875, a t Walterborough, S. C., a piece of timber 6 inches square and 40 feet Ion wei hin 600 pounds, was carried
a distance of 440 yar f’ s, an % a c 5 icken coo g, 4 by 4 feet and 75 pounds in weight, was transporte 4 miles. In the tornado a t Mount Carmel, Ill., June 4, 1877, a piece of tin roof was carried 15 miles and n church spire 17
miles. These examples are quite as marvelous as some of the seemingly miraculous showers recorded of old. The children of Israel believed in their manna because they gathered it with their own hands and ate of it, but surely their credulit would not have stood the test
would rain down from the skies. There is then, we must admit, no retwon for general suspicion toward the accounts of or anic showers. Like other records, they must be inspecte% and the good sifted from the mass. We ma separate at once cer-
had some pro het to r d them that in years to come, in n land across t ?l e sea, chickencoops and church spires
tain classes of alleged organic s 1 owers as spurious.
SPURIOUS SHOWERS.
Insect Zamra?.-”he rains of insect l a r v ~ that have been investigated have proved to be merely the appearance in large numbers on the surface of the ground or upon snow of the larva? of soldier beetles (Telephorus), or sometimes caterpillars, which have been driven from their hibernating quarters by the saturation of the soil by heavy rains or melting snow.
Ants.-Accounts of showers of ants have usual1 been founded on incursions of large numbers of wingei ants, which of course need no assistance from the elements to follow out their habit of swarniing forth periodically in immense numbers. and of sugar are
of certain plants, or of plant lice which feed on a great variety of plants and whose product is often known also
as honey-dew. Qrains.4howers of grain, usually considered miracu- lous, have in most cases been determined to be merely the accumulation by washin durin heavy rains of
diate neighborhood. Bhck rain.-Black rain is due to the precipitation from the atmosphere by falling water of soot, or in some cases of black dust. These showers are of interest, however, as illustratin the carrying ower of the +nd;
Ocean to the westward is pretty dehitely hown to have been carried by the wind from Wales.3 The showers of mud resulting from the reci itation of dark-colored dust or dirt are closely reyatecfto the organic showers discussed further on, as the material must have been derived from the earth’s surface, transported and de- posited in the same wa , and in fact it 18 probable that
organisms. In the case of a black snow, observed in New York in 1889, it was found that the color was due
to “finely divided earth and vegetable mould.”‘ In this case it is certain that small organisms were included among the debris, for it would be im ossible for the wind
number of spores, seeds, fruits, and small animals.
Honey,. sugar.4howers of hone popular names for what scientists zl low are esudations
either the seeds or root tuberc P f es of p ants of the imme-
a rain of soot observe d in Ireland an tl over the Atlantic
all such rains bring wit 1 them some proportion of small
to swee up enoughvegetable mod 1 to discolor a snow- fall wit E out at the same time taking up a considerable
Blood raim.-The most frequently reported showers that are spurious, at least in name, are the so-called blood rains. In all times the phenomena going under this name have frightened the people and have been t,aken as portents of terrific calamities. One of the famous plagues of Egypt was a bloody rain which -
blood rains, and, in fact, the general subject of preter- natural rains was a favorite with the older writers. But scientific jnvestigat,ion has done away with the element of mystery in these phenomena and has explained, with, the others, t.he rains of blood. Some blood rains have been Iound t.0 be the meconial fluid eject.ed by large numbers of certain lepidopbera simultaneously emerging from their chrysalides; ot.her red rains are due to the rapid multiplicat,ion in rain pools of a l p and of rotifers cont.aining red coloring matter; “red snow I’ results from the presence of similar organisms. But in no case have t,hey rained down, except in t,he sense that t.heir s ores or eggs have a t some time been transported, robabfy by the wind. The precipit,ation of moisture furnishes favorable condi t.ions for their rapid develop- ment and mult,iplicntion.
There are several summaries of information relating to the anciently recorded showerslPf miscellaneous matter. Amon them is t,hat p,f Valentin Alhwti. Dissertatio historica phyPira de Pfuvia prodigiosa, , Lei -.Lig, 1674: one by P. J. IIartmann, pihlixhcd aa an appendix to t.lie%iscsllancu Ouriosa * * * Academiae Iinperialis Leopoldinae
* * * Jena, 1888: another by J. C. Haebler, entitled “Dissertatio de pluviis prodigiosis,” published at Erfurt in 1695, and also one by
(1. G . Ehrenberg in 1847 iAbh. Pgl. Preuss. Akad. H’im Berlin.). For modern bibliographies coverin the subject of organic showers, see: Fassi 0. L., Bibliography of Ivfeteomlogy, United States Signal Service, Skowers of Miscellaneous Matter, Part 11,1859, pvee 367-391, and Stuntz, S. C., & Free, E. E., Bibliography of Eolian Geology, Bulletin 65, Vnited States Bureau of Soils, 1911, pages 174-263.
Xanna.-An account of manna “rains ” certainly mtains to the discussion of showers of vegetable matter, lor t.he sul>stance manna consists of lichens of the genus Lewnorn, but, in none of t,he numerous recorded illstiillccs o€ manna “rains ” is t,here any direct evidence tlmt the eubst.ai1c.e really fell from the sky. These lichens form, small, round bodies that are easily blown over the surface ot the ground and accumulate in depressions; they are very buoyant alro and hence easil drifted into
have not occurred except in countries where those lichens tire common, and as for stat.enients of their falling down u on roofs or upon people, or for any other proofs that t K ey really rained down, I have seen none.
vailed throughout the whole land, continuin three r ays and t,hree nights. Homer and Virgil bot fl allude t.o
masses during t.he run-off of rain water. d anna “rains ”
TaUE SHOWEES.
Red raim; dwt.--Qther red rains axe caused by the bringing down in rain water of atmospheric dust of a
reddish color. This hue usually is noticed in rain fallin
with sirocco dust. The composition of this dust has been extensively investigated and it has been found to contain spores, pollen grains, confervoid algse, diatoms, infusoria, and rotifers. In 50 samples of sirocco dust from various parts of Italy pollen, s ores, etc., were
Ehrenberg claims to have found 111 different spaea 01 infusoria, and the total number of organisms enumerated by him from sam les of such dust is 320.” In the Lyons
mass of the dust. Since various atmates place the
in southern Europe a t a time when the air is charge f
found in every one! In sirocco dust co P lected at Lyons
instance organic P oms made up one-eighth of the entire
MAY, 1917. MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. a19
amount of sirocco dust in a fall at from 5) to 9 tons to the square mile, it will be seen that a fall of a ton of microscopic organisms per square mile is within t,he bounds of possibihty.
It is not only the hot and dry sirocco that is laden with dust containing organisms, for indeed they are in the air evergwhere a t all times. The researches of MM. Miquel’ and Boudier8 in France, rrticularly have elucidated the nature of atmospheric ust. The atnios- phere alwa s is cha ed with a large number of organic entities. &e vegeale constituents are chiefly bacilli and the spores of cryptogams, as of fungi, lichens, mosses, and algae. “here are also hairs of plants, fibers of cotton, flax, and hemp, pollens of eve? form, and starch grains. The animal remains include epithelial cells, hairs, shreds of feathers, bits of down and wool, scales of lepidoptera, and the e gs of infusoria. The quantity of suspended
less a t hi h altitudes than in lower areas nearer the
Special forms of aeroscopes have been devised to collect
sam les of atmospheric dust. In one form described b &r. Hubert Airy,” were caught in the city of London
Living mites, entomostraca, and diatoms. It appears, therefore, that a great variety of small organisms or their spores are present in the air a t all times, that. they are freely carried about by the winds, and are constantly being preci itated either in dust or in falling moisture. The possib $ ities for the distribution of these minute forms are practically unlimited, for dust clouds travel indefinite distances. In the United States a dust storm and mud shower was observed on the same day in Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jer- sey.’O This shows transport of the material over a thircl of the breadth of the Unit,ed States, if indeed all of it did not come from the western plains. A dust cloud a thousand, perha s two t,housand miles in length was
tant from the coast of China, from whose loess lains it
lants. At times of great volcanic activity, dust clouds Eave encircled the world. There is, therefore, no limit
to the distribution of atmospheric dust, and therefore pmbably none to that of the minute organisms that are one of its constant components.
Shourew of y2ccn.ts and invertebrates.
PoUen faU8, mlplur raiiu.-Pollen OF various plants, as previously noted, is one of the most common conptitu- mts of atmospheric dust; for instance, Miquel found that there are often a thousand pollen grains to each cubic meter of air.’z But pollen deserves more extended notice because it is really showers of pollen that have been ‘a0 often reported as showers of sulphur. The
yellow color suggested s-ulphur; pollen, especially of pine,
IS highly inflammable, the imagination supplied the smell of brimstone, and su erstition jum ecl a t the conclusion
phoreacent appearance of pollen falls at night also has encouraged preterna tural speculations.
matter in t f e air is high in summer and low in winter, and
9ource of t 1 e bodies found.
t I? e following things additional to those just named:
observed at sea E y J. Mihe l1 when 200 to 400 miles dis-
was probably derived. This dust contained s fll reds of
that the devil had \ een busy. $he occasional phos-
bnn L’ObmrV8tam & Montsourls 1879 p 41-512.
; Jctn&&mg,.&b&~ BB., l876, A: Sd?&
le Mommy #EA- REVBW, %y, 1802,30: 289.
nN8- J-9 1892 46:1!28. u ~s p d r e s o f c ~y ~~~8 8 n ~~u s . ItbstatedthatonReunlon urn sometinma rue pnxumt in the BV in such quantity 88 ~t h e r p a r e s o l t .a ~~~~W
-17-2
The followin is extracted from an account of a pollen
dust which coated the surface of rain water in bar& and ools, was taken by the uneducated for a fall of sul bur.
f t was said by the ima atitre to smell ‘‘awful like E rim-
of the dust under a microscope at once showed it to be
the pollen of pine. Another writer adds: 14
As this mystery, if it is not explained. may prove aerious to the nmv-
OW superstitious, or credulous part of the community, we may m well add that at this semon districts in the neighborhood of fir (PhZt8 sylre plantations run the risk of a thorough dusting of this pomder if there
is the slightest breeze, aa the cones of the youn Scota fir are thickly coated with yellow ponder or pollen, which a i l f g h e out a blinding saffron cloud on the slightest disturbance
The appearance of a conspicuous movement of pollen has been well described by Dr. D. P. Thomson. 1s
On the afternoon of June 11, 1M7, the wooded part of Morayahire ap peared to smoke, and for a time fears were entertained that the fi plan
tations were OII fire. A smart breeze suddenly got up from the north and above the woods there appeared to rise about 50 columna of Borne- thing reseinbling smoke, which was wreathed about like mterapouta. The atmosphere now calmed and the mystery m a solved, for what seemed smoke wa8 in reality the pollen of the woods.
The ease with which pollen is taken up into the air together with the prodigal rofusion with which it is pro-
so-called sulphur rains. In March, 1879, several instances of yellow raiu or snow occurred in the United States. Prof. W. H. Chandler of Lehigh University, South Bethle- hem, Pa., writes that during Saturday night, March 16,
1879, there was a slight fall of snow in that section, and on Monday morning when the snow had melted, a
ellow deposit was found covering the ground more or Lss. Upon examining the de osit, it was found to be the
observer at New Orlenns, reports li ht showers on t
ture of the rain was its yellow color, wluch was due to large quantities of the ollen of the cypress tree floating
in the atmosphere.” h e United States Si a1 Corps
a saniple of t F le yellow deposit which had fallen with the rain the preceding night and “ * * * it was found to consist * * * entirely of the characteristic triple- ained pollen of the pine.”” A pollen shower at Pictou,
Fova Scotia, in June, 1841, was so heav 7 that bucketfuls were swept .up on a ship. This materia? was entirely the ollen of pme trees.” As showing how far pollen may
{e transported by the wind, it is noted that “A shower of this hncl fell at Lund at the south of Sweden, which M. Agardl1 (Nova Acta, 12) found to contain the ollen of Pinqs sylvestris or Scotch fir, borne on the winf from a
forest about 35 miles distant.” 18
ollen,
o f organic matter, is hay. This should not be surpnsh since the materid is comparatively light and is availabf; a t the time of yedr when wind w l d s are most frequent. The &yjt step in the development of a shower of hay was observed by Prof. F. E. Nipher,lg who describes a whirl- wind that picked up hay and carried it in the form of an
1879 rn.lQ%i%.
shower in Eng K and lJ in early June, a fall of fine ellow
stone” and to presage t r e end of the world. Examination
duced niake it easy to un B erstand the frequency of the
E
pollen of pine trees. The s nited States Signal Co
17th of the same month, and states t % at ‘fa peculiar fea-
observer at L chburg, Va., forwarded on Marc T 21,1879,
&y.-The vegetable. substance, which, after fi ures most frequently in the accounts of actual s fl owers
___
nmrpcnttr P. ET. Plne-pollen mistabn for flowers of sulphur.
14 iVf& Andrcw. Nature, JUIY 17,1879 20, aS7.
15 ~hom;o7a D . P. Introduction to medorolugy. Edinburgh, &C
11 MONT~LY! WEATEEB REVIEW March 1879, p. 16.
17 Batlev J . W in Amer. jour. &I. and Lts 1642 4 2 105-197.
18 Thorn.& D.‘b. Introduction to Yeteordlogy,’l849, p. 151.
10 Nstiire, kept. 11,1879,a 4.58.
June la.
, 151.
220 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. MAY, 1917
inverted cone about 200 feet hi h and 150 feet in diameter
mile when i t disappeared over a hill. The complete henomenon, on a small scale, is described as follows by ir Francis Galton: 2o
We had a curious Bight * * * yesterday (July 26: 1891). I t W ~E
a dead calm, but in a field just below the gardm * * * the hay was whirled up Jigh into the sky, a column connecting above and below, and in the course of the evening we forwd great patrlirs of hay raining down all over the surrounding meadoas and our garden. It
kept falling quite four holm after the affair.
On June 30, 1892, a large uantity of ha was taken
fe E at Belchamp, about 3 miles to the north.?’ In two other cases noted, one in London,3* the other in Ireland,23 the hay was seen floating a t a great height in the atmos- phere and then to fdl. Wheat.-In my introductory remarks I stated that most of the so-called showers of grain-were s urious.
took place in Andalusia. which had been carried by a
hurricane across the Straits of Gibraltar. from a tlueshing floor a t Tetuan. ” 24
.”-A substanc.e which has fallen froni
at the top. The whirl was f ollowed for about hdf a
B
u by a whirlwind at Nether 9 riors, Esses, digland, and
However “in 1804 * * * a real ramfall o P wheat
been called “meteoric
investigated the case
a great mtws of
a violent snow- Rnuclen in Cour- preserved and it was 152 years later that Ehrenberu examined i t and found it to consist “of a conipactYy matted mass of Conferva crispata, traces of Nostoc and of about 29 * * *
s ecies of infusoria.’’ This materid was undoubtedly t % e crusts of dried algre wliich form on the surface of the round exposed by the evaporation of the water of
sh a# ow ponds. This paper-like substance could easily be lifted up by the wind and carried a long distance. J e a or “$esh.”-Manna is the bread of organic. showers ;
but wtat is the meat ? Showers of flesh have oft.eii been recorded and they have proved to be precipita.tions of a
glairy substance, which upoii partial drying forinccl enough of a skin on the outside to iuc1uc.e peo le to call
pared to butter. Probably most if not all of it is the material known as zooglea formxl on the sJwfac,e of
water where bacteria tire actively multiplyin The substance known as zoogeii or zoioclii? is y b a t l y the same. An extensive shower of such jelly-ike material occurred in Bath Count , Icy., in 18’76, and was referrd
Such spawn really has rained down also, if we niay believe the account of M. Moreau de St. Mery, relating to
&p observation in San Domingo.2E
From November, 17S5, t o the 5th of Nay, 17S(i, there waa ex erieuced a terrible drought. The last day, viz, May 5, 1786, there felyduring a strong east wind, in 6eYeml parts of t.he city of Port au Prince * * *
a great quantity of black eggs. yhich hatched the following day. 51.
Mozard preaerved about 50 of thesr small animals in a iiwk half E d 1 of water, where they Bhed their skins several times. They resembled tadpoles.
roved to coiisist of the egg
it flesh. When found fresh, this material has E een COM-
to as the dried spawn o 9 fishes or of soim batrachian.
Other ‘elly rains have masses o 2 midges, and of co 7 onies of infusoria. A shower
10 Nature, July 30,1801.44: 294.
g p t a s rendus, 11;. 52: 1dlO9. SNature 1875 12‘ 270.
u H a r d G. ’ The Aerial world 1874. p. 194. S ~n n k t IIist. 1 ~~9 3: 1ssis6. ~d€ oriiu de St. M&, descr!p. de Saint Dominique, t. 3, p. 413, cited In P. H. Gorse,
om’s met. ma August 1892,32: 108.107.
A NaturallstC sojourn 111 Jamma, 1851, p. 130.
of the latter is described aa follows by L. Jen s * in his article on a so-called storm of insects at Bat g. , England:
There had been a sudden squall of wind before there came a heavy
rain, and my idea is that thew organisma must have been lifted 11 by the force of the wind, acting in a gyratory manner, from some sdlow pool in the neighborhood. * * * A boy at the station h t noticed them (that is. the spherical masses in which the organisms were grouped) @ling on his coat * * *; as the rain fell more heavily the plat- form * * * naa covered with them.
Znsects.-‘l‘he popular designation of these infusoria as
insects of come was due to the very wide N~SUS~ of this term. I have noted previously that the alleged showers of insect larvs also were not genuine, but there have been apparently a few real rains of insects. Two which oc- curred in Germany are described as
At Szentes, August 14, between 9 and 10 . m. a deep-black cloud suddenly appeared in the evening sky. goon thereafter b e p a clou iipuur, not of rain, but of winged insects, uhich in a few nunutea cowrpd the ground a foot deep. A t 8t. Catherine a. d. Lamming (~.~bm~teierm?rk). on the 10th and 11th of August, insect rains also uwurred. which while not EO remarkable, still were very annoying. Tlie insects \\ere in part small neuropteroids and in part winged ants.
Accounts of three other showers which have been gleaned from French publications are circumstantial, and clearly show sustained transport of insects by the wind and their falling from tho shes after the manner of rain:
Toward the end of May, M. L. AudC, * * * while returning from Ilortagne to Herbiers. wacl caught in a violent storm from the north- east which, during a heavy rain, covered his conveyance with a mulh-
tude of Grylbu. The wind waa cold and the Orthoptera falliy .m the midst of the irtin appeared lifelew. These * * * are a in the larval state and are Gryllics doniesticus of authors.”
Rey de Morande in describing a shower of insecb and spiders in Haute-Savoie, says:
On the night of January 29-30 [1869?], about 4:30 a. m., with a violent gust of wind which soon ceased, snow fell until day, and in the niorninq there were found on this snow a large quantity of living h r v e . * * * (The teniperature fur 80me da 3 before had been wry lnw.) * * * They B pearcd to be, for &e most part, larve
of Doyosiin muritccnica. whit% are common in old trees in the foreeta in soiithern France. There were iound also larva? of a little moth
*** probably Stibia stagnieola. This shower of insecta and spiders
at an altitudt. of 1,000 to 1,200 meters, can not be explained except by transpoitation by a violent wind from central or southern Prance. 11. Tiwot, * * * who observed the phenomenon, adds, that in November, 1Y5-1, several thousands of insecta, mostly living, were thrown down by a violent wind in the vicinity of Turin. Some were 1ar-w and some adult and all appeared to be of a s eciea o! hemiptera that had iiewr been collected except on the isle of Sardima.
MoZZuscs.-Before leaving the consideration of inverte- brates we may note that: *‘A shower of mussels, some weighting about 2 ounces, fell during a severe storm, on
the 9th of August,, 1834, in the United States.s1 The following year anotrlier shower of molluscous animals,
B,ti7imts tmncatus, took place at Montpelier [France].” sz
Faus of vertebrate organisms.
The f d of vertebrate animals from the skies like rain is, of course, the most interesting of all the showers of or anic matter, and-it must be admitted-the hardest
there are genuine phenomena of this c aracter, though perhaps not so numerous as the recorded instances. These occurrences, if observed by man, naturally make profound im ressions and in the olden times especially,
%
to % elieve. Yet there cannot be the s l i htest doubt that
the tales of s P lowers of fishes and the like were improved
MAY, 1817. MONTHLY WE,QTHER REVIEW. 221
by each taller, so that soon they reached the stage of the unbelievable. Frogi?, toads.-I quote only one of the older writers, Athenseus, who flourished about 200 A. D. He is the author of a 01 historicd work cded the “Deipnoso-
works he consulted at the Alexandrian Library, 700 of whom would have been unknown, except for the! for- tunate preservation of Atheneeus’ work. In a chapter entitled “De pluvius piscium,?’ he says: s3
I know also that it has very often rained fishes. A t all events Phaeniaa, in the second book of hie Eresian Magistrates. aays that in the Chereonesus it once rained fiah uninterruptedly for three days; and Phylarchus in his fourth book, my’s that people had often seen it raining fish, and often also raining wheat, and that the lame had ha pened with respect to frogs. At all event,sI-Ieraclidea
thiT Lem us, in t t e 2lst book of his history. says: “In Pneonia and Dar- dania, it haa, they aay, befdre no^ rained frogs: and so great haa been the number of these frogs that the houses and the roads have been full with them; and at first for some days the inhabitants, endeav- oring to kill them, and shutting u their houses endured the pest; but when they did no good, but pound that all their vesaels were filled with them, and the frogs were found to be boiled up and roasted with everything they ate, and when beeides all this they could not make uae of any water, nor put their feet on the ground for the heaps of frog that were everywhere, and were annoyed also by the smell of those that died, they fled the country.”
For numbers of frogs and the far reaching sffect.s of their fall3‘ this tale c,an scarcely be surpassed? but it will be well to recount some later instances, especially some of the more circunistantial oiies. Holinslwd j5
informs us that in Great Britain-
frogs fell in Angumhire during the time of Agricola. Frogs were reported to have descended, during the summer of 1S46 over the Humber, upon the decks of veeaels in the river and on the coast near Killinghome lights.
phists,” in w &7 c i he quotes about 800 authors, whose
A later account Iecit.es that-
Dun the storm that raged with conRiderable fury in Birmingham (ELlgla3 n on Wednesday morning. June 30 [lS92]. a shower of frogs fell in the suburb of Moseley. They were found scattered about several d e n s . Alniost Vrhite in color, t.hey had widently I?een absorbef in a mall Taterspout that was driven over Birmingham by
the tempest.
Several notices have from time t.o tinie been brought, before the French Acndemy of showers of frogs having fallen in different pnrts of France. XI. Duparque states in a letter that-
In August, 1814, after se~eral weeks of drouth and heat, z Atorm broke one Sunday about 3:30 . m.. upon the vi11 e of Fremoii, u
quarter league from Allliens. h i s storm was preceyed by bursts of wind 80 violent that they shook the church and frightened the con- gregation. While traversing the s ace separating the church from presbytery, we were soaked, but wgat sur xi& me ~i t 8 to be struck on my person and my clothing by small frogs. * * *. A large number of these small animals ho ped about on the ground. On arriving at the presbytery, we founa the floor of one of the rooms in which a window facing the storm had been left open covered with waterandfrogs. * * *.
Showers of toads seem to be more common in some ions than those of frogs. I have seen accounts of 13
a e r e n t occurrences of the kind in France. A French scientist M. Maudu , curator of natural history at
Poitiem, had personJ experience with two such showers, which he narrates briefly as follows: 38
On the 23d of June, 1SO9, during a hot spell, I woe cau ht in a rain &om in which with the very large drops were mixed lit& bodies the
0 Atlcruus. The deipnosophists or banquet of the lenrned (Trans]. by 0. D. T q e ISM Y h it not much more reasonable to conclude that the plague of @gs reported by HmcUdea Lembus was due to a migration, rather than to a prtxrpltatloii of the
10 chrcm Vol 11“ 59. Thomeon, Da& Pudic, Introduction to Meteorology. Ch.
-
Book XV pt. 2, pp. 628637.
k t r M h h 8 ?4 .A Jr.
WI pp. iiwli6, iJi. met. mag., August, le92.32: 107. tut, 1€ 34,1: 854. L W t U t , l e a , 1: w 1 0 .
size of hazelnuts, which in a moment, covered the ground, and which I recogmaed aa little toads. * * * The second occasion, occurr$
in August, 1832, a storm and very hot eriod; I waa
si1 rised by a he:$%orrer of &e drops &=e$,. aa waa the o c wi% little toads, some of which fell on my hat. Thm time the animala were the size of n-alnuts. I found that I waa more than a league distant from any brook, river, or mnrsh.
A considerable discussion of the sub’ect of rains of toads was carried on in 1831 in the dr ench scientific magazine from which I have quoted. I cite two more bits of testimony by eye witnesses, one of which has been wide1 reproduced. M. ?Ieard, writes:
In June, 1833, I was at Jouy near Veraaille. I aaw toads falling from the sky; they struck my umbrella; I saw them ho ping on the pave- ment, during about 10 minulea in which time the Bops of water were not more numerous than the toads. The s ace upon which I saw the multitude of these animals was about 200 $thoma.
M. Peltier in his oft-copied statement says: 40
In support of the communication of Col. Marmier, I cite an incident I observed in my youth; a storm advanced upon the little village of
Ham, Department of the Bomnie. where I lived, and I observed ita menacing march, when suddenly rain fell in torrents. I saw the village square covered everyirhere with little toads. Astoniahed by thb aiglit, I held out my hand and \ma struck by several of the reptilea. The dooryard also was covered: I cru‘x them fall upon the slate roof and rebound to the pavement. * * * Whatever the difficulty of ex-
plaining the transport of the reptilee. I affirm, without doubt the fact Xr-hich made ~u c h a profouiid imprewion upon my memory.
The most remarkable account of a shower of toads, that I have seen, so far, is the following:
In the aummer of 1794 M. Gavet was quartered in the village of Lalain, Department du Nord, *‘ * * near the territory which the
Austrians, then masters of Valenciennes, had flooded with water from the Scarpe. It was ver hot. Suddenly, at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon, there fell suci an abundunce of rain that 150 men of the
grand guard, in order not to be submerged, were obliged to leave a large depremion in rhich they were hidden. But what waa their surprise when there began to fall on the ground all about a conaiderable number of toads. the size of hazeliiuts, which began to jump about in every direction. M. Cia et, xho could not believe that these m iads of reptiles fell with t i e rain, stretched out hie handkerchief at tc h of a man, his comrades holding the corners; they caught a conaidat: nuniber of toads, moat of rhich had the posterior art elongated into a
tail, that is to say, iu the tadpole state. During ti& rain storm, which lasted about half an hour, the inen of the grand uard felt very die- tinctly on their hate and on their clothing the bqoms struck by the hlling toads. As a final proof of the reality of thie phenomenon, M. Gayet reports that dter the storm the three-cornered hats of the men of the guard held in their folds some of the reptiles.
Fkh.-For reports of the fding of from the skies, we have been far afield, reason that I have not found an
Before giving these accounts, d o w me to introduce a few statements that tend to show how fishes get started on the aerial journeys that terminate in fGh rains. ower of waterspouts, we
tiansoe a waterspout emptied the harbor to such an extent that the greater part of the bottom waa un- covered.” Naturally under such circumstances fishes and any other organisms in the water may change their habitat very abruptly. Waterspouts have been ob- served to accoinplish the comparatively insignificant tasks of emptying fish ponds and scattering their occupants.
A prodigy of this kind is recorded to have occurred in France, at 8
town some distance from Pa&, during aviolent storm. Whenmornrng dawned, the streets were found strewed with h h of various &ea.
United States. But for fishes, t 9 iere are several reports.
may quote M. Oersted’s dec P aration‘a that “At Chris- To show the tremendous
-
Lmtitut. ISM, 2: 353. L’lnstitut 1F34 2’ 346-7. L’Iustitut’ 1834’ 2 354.
~l i ~o n ~ fAzhcs. The Tempest, pp. 135137.
222 MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. May, 1917,
The mptery ww tmn aolved, for a fit& nd in the vicinity had been
blown dry, and only the large fkh left beKd.ls
a storm on December 28, 1845, at Bas- aenthwa-ngland, &h were blown from the lake to
%omexlug now to the United States records, Mr. Thomas R. &era states that-
During ? recent tlymderstorm at Winter Park, Fla., a number of &h fell mth the ram. They were sunfish from 2 to 4 inches long. It ia-eyppoeed that they were taken up by a waterspout from Lake and carried westward b the etrong wind that was blowing :%?he. The dlatance from tKe lake to the place where they fell is about a mils.
In the MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW for June, 1901
( 263), is the note ‘‘Mi. J. W. Gardner, voluntary okmver at Tillers Ferry, S. C., reports that durin local shower about June 27 [1901] there ell
afterwards found swimming in the pools between the cotton rowa.”
In all, I am ac uainted with four records of falls of
Great Britain, two in France, and six in India and neigh- boring countnes. These are all well vouched for, or f a d y modern and circumstantially related instances. The older, chiefly traditional, records would make a long list.
One of the most ancient records of fish having fallen from the atmoe- phere in Great Britain is the following: About Easter, 1666, in the pariah of Stanstead, which is a coneiderable distance from the sea,
or any branch of it, and a place where there are no fish ponds, and rather scarcity of water, a pasture field was scattered all over with mall a, in uantity about a buabel, sup d to have been rruned down from a cloud, there having been at c %n e a great tempest of thunder, rain, and wind. The fish were about the size of a man’s little finger. Some were Eke mall whiting.8, others like sprats, and wme maller, like melta. Several of these fish were sold publicly at Maidatone and D a r t f ~r d .~~ A sh?wer. of h e r r w is recorded to have taken place near to Loch Leven, in knroee-ehue, about the year 1825; the wind blew from the Frith of Forth at the time, and doubtless the fbh had been thereby carried from the sea acm Fifeshire to the plece where they were found.“ In 1828, similar fish fell in the count of ~oes, 3 milee dietant from the ~r i t h of ~i n g w s l i .4 8 On the 9d of March, 1830, in the Isle of Ula, in Argyleehue, after a heavy rain, numbers of mall herrin were found scattered over the fields; they were perfectly fresh, anrsome not quite dead. On the 30th of June, 1841, a fish measuring 10 inches in length, with others of smaller size, fell at Boston; and-during a thunderstorm, on the 8th of July, in the BBme year, fish and ice fell together at Derby.‘*
A convincing statement of personal ex erience with a rain of fishes 19 that of John Lewis, of Ibderdare, who sap that while working, February 9:
I was startled by something falling all over me-down my neck, on my head, and on m back. On putting my hand down my neck I
WBB eurprised to d the were little fish. By this time I saw the und covered widthem. I took off my hat, the brim of which %?urof them. * * * They covered the ground in a long stri about 80 ysrde by 12 yards, as we measured afterwards. * * * d gathered a great man of them * * * and threw them into the rain 1 where some of &em now are. * * * It was not blowing very
m, but uncommon wet. * * * The pereon who took this testi- mony add6 that he secured about 20 of the little fish, some of which were 4 and 5 inches long. A number of them fishes were exhibited for m v d weeks in the aquaria h o w of the Zoological Society in the Regent’s Park, London.6o
The accounts of rains of fishes in South America are by Alexander von Humboldt,”’ whose language relating to them is as follows:
So, d ’
land.“ .
i a
hhes in the Unite 8 States, two in South America, eight in
of little fish (cat, perch, trout, etc.) that were
volarnoes
When the esrthqueha, which pmede every emption in the chain of the Andes, shake with mighty force the en- maea of $e volcano,
the subterranean vaults are opened and emit at the same tlme water, fishes, and tufa-mud. This is the si lar henomenon that fumiahe6 the f%h Pimehies yclo urn, which % i&bieta of the highlands of Quito call “ Prefhdih,” and which waa despbed by me Boon after my return. When the s u m t of the mountam , to the north of Chimboraso and 18,000 faet high, fell, i n e b e t w e e n the 19th and 20th of June, 1698, the m u n d i n g fields, to the extent of about 43 English square miles, were covered with mud and fishes. The fever which raged in the town of Ibarra seven years before had been ascribed to a shnilar eruption of fishes from the volcano Imbaburu.
There are several well authenticated reports of falls of fish in India, and this has given rise to the belief that the henomenon is more frequent there than elsewhere. h i s may be true on account of the favoring circumstances of extensive river flood plains, numerous shallow water tanks, a fish fauna rich in shoal water forms, and a hot, whirlwind-breeding climate. Certainly the descriptions of fish rains in that part of the world are numerous, specific, and ast,onishmg as to the magnitude of the phenomena. One of the oldest re orb, brief but with a humorous touch, I quote first. %t is by Lieut. John Harriott,” mho sap:
In a heavy shower of raiu, while our army waa on the march a && distance trom Pondich a uantity of small fish fell with the rain, to the aatoniehment o f T $an of them lodged on the men’e hats.
* * * They were not .flyiy.Jh the were dead and falling from the well-known effect of gravlty; but tow they ascended or where they existed I do not pretend to account. I merely relate the simple
fact.
A very valuable account of a shower of fishes is that b J. Prmsep, editor of the Journal of the Asiatic Society
The phenomenon of fish falling from the sky in the rainy seaeon, however incredible it may appear, has been attested by such Circum- stantial evidence that no reasonable doubt can be entertained of the fact. I was as incredulous an my neighbore until I once found a small fish in the brass funnel of my pluviometer at Benrtres. I have now before me a note of a .similar phenomenon, on a considerable d e , which happened at the Nokulhatty factory, Zillah Dacca Jedalpur, in 1830. Mr. Cameron, who communicated the fact, took the precaution of having a re ular deposition of the evidence of eeved nativeu who had witneesed t i e fall made in Bengalee and attested before the magb
trete; the statement is well worthy of preservation in a journal of science. * * * The shower of fish took lace on the 19th of Feb- ruary, 1830, in the neighborhood of the Surkmdy factory, Feridpoor
(p. 650).
There are depositions of nine eye witnesses, of which I quote two:
Shekh Chaudari Ahmed, son of Mutiullah, inhabitant of Nagdi re- latee in his deposition: “I had been doi my work at a meadow, where I perceived at the hour of 12 o’clock the%ypther clouds, and began to rain slight1 , then a large fiah touching my ack by ite head fell on the
. d i n g surpmd I looked about, and behold a number of fieh
Fa dsemse fell from heaven. They wera saul, sale, guzal, mirgal, and bodul. I t z k 10 or 11 fish in number, and I mw many other persons takeman . Shekh guduruddin, inhabitant of Nagdi, was called in and declared in his deposition aying: “On Friday, at 12 o’clock . m., in the month of Phalgun * * * when I waa at work in a fie&, I perceived the sky darkened by clouds, b e y to rain a little and a large fish fell from the sky. I was confounde at the right, and Boon entered my small cottage, which I had there, but I came out again as tmn as the rain had cesaed and found every art of my hut mattered with 6ah; they w m boduli, mirgal, and nouc%i, and amounted to 26 in number.”
The lar e number of &ha that may rain down is
On the 16th or 17th of Yay last a fall of fieh happened in monea Sonare, pergunna Dhata Ekdullah, Zillah Futteppur. The eemindam
y HurW John Btru les through Life Isos, v. 1, 141-14Z U P T /R I ~I , J . o f i s h rrom the d. JOW.. A%& society ~mmgpl, 1868, z :
o r Bengal. He writes?
illustrated 5) y another Indian instance whch was reported as follows:54
85W5L.
64 JoUr., ASl8th WO. Of B N , U34, U87.
MAY, 1917. MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW. 223
of the village have furnished the following partic+ which are con- firmed by other account& About noon, the wind b from the weat, and a few distant clouds visible, a blast of high 3, accompanied with much duat, which changed the atmosphere to a reddish yellow hue, came on; the blast ap to estend in breadth about 400 yards.
* * * When the etorm d passed over, they found the ground aouth of the village to the extent of two bigahs strewed with fish, in number not leaa than three or four thousand. The fish were all of the Chalwa Species (Clupw culhala), a span or leaa in length, and from 13 to seer in weight; when found they were all desd and dry. Chalwa fi& are found in the tanks and nvera of the neighborhood; * * * the neareat water is about half a mile aouth of the village.
For the number of fiahes that fell this account is not surpassed but for all-around interest, and credulity inspired iy the name of its distinguished author, the testimony of Francis de Castelnau, mentioned a t the beginning of this paper, is supreme. The note is entitled “Shower of Fishes; earthquake at Singapore,” and was published in 1861:’
We experienced here an erthquake at 7: 34 m., February 16, that lasted about two minutes; i t was followed by & rains, which on the 2Oth, 21at, and 22d became veritable torrents. The last day at 9 a. m. the rain redoubled in fury, and in a half hour our inclosed plot became aeeaofwater * * *. At 10 o’clock the Bun lifted and from my window I aaw a large num- ber of Malays and Chinese filling baakets mth fishea which they picked u in the pools of waier which covered the r d On bein asked wgere the fishes came from, the natives rep ‘ed that they had fallen from the sky. Three daya afterwards, when the pools had dried up, wo found many de+ fishes. Having examned the animals, I recognized them aa Ch76as ihlr5 thus, Cuvier and Valenciennes, a species of catfish which is very abundant in fresh water in Singapore, and the nearer Malayan Islande, in Siam, Borneo, etc. They were from 25 to 30 centimeters long, and therefore adult. These ailuroids, the same as Ophicephalua, etc., are able to live a
long time out of water, and to pro.geaa some distance on land, and I thou ht at once that they had come from some small streams near b but &e yard of the house I inhabited is inclosed in a Tall that WOUG prevent them entering in this manner. ,4n old Malay has since told me that in his youth he had seen a similar phenomenon
Other v&ebratcs.-Showers of vertebrates other than frogs, toads, and fishes are rare indeed. It was recorded in 1873 that a shower of reptiles fell in Minnesota,’e and from the description it is evident the creatures were larva of a salamander,probably of AmbZystoma tipinurn. The
MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW for May, 1894 (p. 215) states that during a severe hailstorm “at Boving, 8 miles east of Vicksburg, Miss., a go her turtle 6 by 8 inches and
“his is a most remarkable occurrence, but what shall we say of a shower of birds, in which hundreds dropped dead m the streets of a Louisiana city? In the Baton Rouge, La., correspondence of the Philadelphia Times, some time in 1896, it is statedb7 that-
On Friday morning last early-rieey in the little capital Baton
that fell from a clear sky, htaplly cluttering $e streets of the City There were mld ducks, catbirds, wood ckere, and many birds oi strange plumage, aome of them resembEg cananes, but all dead, falling in heaps along the thomughfarea, the angular phenomenon attracting many spectatore and cauamg much comment. The moat plausible theory as to the strange windfall is. that the birds were dnven inland by the recent storm on the Flonda mt, the force of the current of air and the sudden chan of temperature
Babnbuge. Some idea of the extent of the shower may be gathered from the estimate that out on National Avenue alone the children of the neighborhood collected 200 birds.
This seems clearly not to have been a case of migrants becoming confused by cit lights nor killing themselves
by flying against obsta&, mishaps which rather fre- quently occur to bird travelers. The phenomenon of mi-
gration among mammals gives rise to the only story of a
entirely incased in ice fel e with the hail.”
Rouge, La.] witnessed a peci!liar sight in the aha e of a shower o I birds
cauein death to many of the feathered creatures w %“ en they reached
shower of those animals that I have seen. I t is given by Charles Tomlinson, who writes:ss
In aome countries rata migrate in vast numbers from the high to the low countries; and i t is recorded in the hiatory of Norway that a shower of theae, transported by the wind, fell in an adjacent valley.
I have not seen the original of this tale, but it may have been prompted by the ap earance, in large numbers, of lemmings which fre uent P y migrate in hordes in Scan-
these migratory movements some of the animals were transported by a violent wind and precipitated as “a shower of rats.”
dinavia. I t is possi B le, of course, that during one of
WIND AS A DISTRIBUTINQ AQENT.
We have reviewed instances of the rain-like fall of various animal and plant bodies, of pollen, of hay of diatoms, alga, rotifers of insects, frogs, toads, fiskee, salamanders, turtles, kirds, and rats. It remains to inquire what significance, if any, these phenomena have for the distribution of living things upon the earth. Vdebrates.-In the case of vertebrates distribution by wind transport must be of practically no importance. Mammals and birds thus snatched up by the wind, if carried any distance, arrive dead. Batrachians also often are killed, and if not, usually must be carried for short distances only; the chances are also that the will reach an unfavorable environment and perish for & a t reason. Fishes, most of all, are fated to fall where they can not survive, and their inability to live long out of water strictly limits the possibilities of their deriving advantage b wind transport. In addition, it must be remembered
by the wind are really rare. -4U in all, we must conclude that the wind is a very unimportant factor in the distri- bution of vertebrate animals. Plant seeds.-In the case of most seed-producing lants, although hundreds of species have seeds mo& sp ed for wind transport, it has not been shown that they are especial1 successful in making rapid strides in distribu-
The distance to which specially adapted aeeda may be carried b the wind irrconaiderable, but in ordinary couree is not attained. * * E Among the numerous species of fruita and seeds obtained from mow fields and glaciew high in the Alps not one waa derived from a distant district.
Vo ler,O0 who made a special study of the means of distri%utiou of a1 ine plants, found that instances of
were not rare, while “transport of seeds * * * to great distances,. even hundreds of kilometers * * * is possible, but in the actual distribution of plants plays a minor r81e.”
Spores, &.-When we come to consider, however, the distribution of plants and animals that *have spores, eggs, statoblasts, or other minute but reslstant resting stages, it is apparent that winds are thew most important means of spread.
t c at in all these groups instances of their being carried
tion. 2 erner says: 6n
spread by the win a to distances of from 3 to 40 kilometers
The United States Bureau of Entomolo haa shown that win& are important in the distribution of mites (M&gor, E. A., & McDonough, E’. L., Dept. Agr. Bul. 416, 1917, pp. 31-32 , and the aymotb (Collins. C. W., Dept. Agr. Bul. 273, 1915). k a l l larvae opthi hi+ named est were found to be carried 131 milea by ordinary winds. For a t ic3 exposition of the agency of wind in distributing fungus aporea, see?ourn. agric. research, Washington, March, 1915, 3:493-525.
Reflect what op ortunities are offered to the wind in
The drylng of the water stim ates all the organisms to up
every (57 basin le P t by the eva oration of shallow pools.
224 MONTHLY WEA
was extirpated b t8he 1883 eruption of nlmost unparnl- leled violence. &om 16 to 30 per cent’ of the phnnero- gams established on Krakatoa 35 ears after t,he catas-
of the ferns (16 species) nad lower cryptogams, a.lmost without exception (more than 30 species). Between 49
and 63 per cent of its flora, therefore, is wind-borne.
The first recolonization of the island in 1856 was entirely by wind-distributed species as alga, bacterin , dintoms , liverworts, mosses, and ferns.81 The distribution of spores and other light re roductive
denly pick up a quantity of these object,s to later drop them as showers of organisms; there seem t.o he a cer- tain number of them always in the atmosphere. In fact, aeroscopes reved a st!escly fall of atmospheric -dust, in- cluding minute organisms, t.hat must be a far more ini- portant dement in the distribution of such life than the more impressive but sporadic showers.
trophe of 1883 were ca.rried there g y winds, as were all
cells does not depend’on sporadic gush of win B that sud-
CONCLUSION.
It would appenr, therefore, that t,lie morc yect,n.c- ular the shower of. organic matter t.lie less its im- portance in the distribution of life. The rains of larger animals have attracted much attention and escited wonder, but in many cases t,he animals have been dead: in others they were doomed to die because of falling in an unsuitable environment. Not, often me all t.hc con- ditions pro itious for t,lie species to secure a new foothold.
ment of minute eggs nnd spores by the cttmospherc, how- ever, is of great importttllce in distribution because these organic bodies are adapted to survive such tra.nsport; their numbers are so great and their dispersal so widc, t,hat some of them will necessarily fn.11 in favorablo places. The chances are, in fact, that every suitable anrironnient will be populated. So far as mere preservation of s ecies
investiption, the superiority of t-he pi,vmy over t,he ginnt, of ins1 nificance over co1i~pic11ci11s1ies8, of pnssivit,v a.nd ada tatilit. over strenuous effort. “Blcss~.d n.re t:lic me&, for tiey sha.ll inherit the mrth.”
Beward, lsoe), pp. 6088.
The uno % trusive, but steady and widespread move-
is concerned, we see.here, RS in other plie.sns of bio f ogical
- . .. . . - .
Emat, A . “he new Bora of the volcanic island of Kraliatnii (EngI. transl. by A. C.
LTHER REVIEW. MAY, 1917
RECORDS AT THE ABBE METEOROLOGICAL OBSEBVATOBY COIPAEED WITH THOSE AT THE GOVEBNXENT BUILDmCt,
cwcm37ATI. 5-5/. s o / ( 7 7 /)
By WILLIAM CHARLEA DEVEREAUX, Meteorologist.
[Abbe Meteorological ObSerV8tOry, Lalayette Clrrle, Cincinnati. Ohio, Apr. 11, 1917.1
During the 24 months from April 1, 1915, to March 31,
1917, both inclusive, com lete weather records were made
at. tlie Co\-eniment Buil&g, Cincinnati, and at the Abbe Meteorological Observatory maintained by the United States Weather Bureau at Lafayetto Circle, Clifton, Cin- cinnati, Ohio. The following pages present a discussion of these comparative observa tions.
LOCATIONS OF EXPOSURES.
Thc fAwet.n:m.cvi Bui7d<,nn.g, Cincinnati, is located 900
vards from the Ohio River, which forms the southern hundai.;v of t.he city, and is 1iea.r t.lie center of the prin- cipal business section. (See fi . 1). Moderately high hills form a semicircle around t.he % usiness section, whc.h lies
on the comparat.ively level ground between the hills and t,he river. Thn Government Buildin stands some distance east of t,lie center of t.he semicirc. f e of inclosing hills; the nearest. hill is northeast from t.he building, the gromid baginnina t.o rise ra. idly within a distance of half
ground nt, t.hc Govcrnment Building, or of 800 feet above
sea l e d . The hills to t,he north are distant + mile, to the west 2 milcs, to the sout>hwest, in Kentucky 13 miles, nnd t.o t.ho soudh 23 miles from the Government Building. The highest of these hills lies between SO0 and 900 feet
nbove sealevel. The elevations of the instruments nbore the ground a t the Government building are 8s follows: Barometer, 74
feet; raingage, 145 feet; theiiomet~ers, 152 feet; me- niomeber, 160 feet: and wind va.ne, 161 feet. Within a ratlius of 600 feet and from a. point, directly southwest, to
n. oint, a little cnst of south, there ai’e buildings con- siLra.hly higher thnn the wind vane. To the east, north,
m d west the buildings are about the same height as the wind vane. The general surroundings are illustrat.ed in
figures 2 a.nd 3.
The Abbe iUeteoroZogicn2 Obsf?rvatwy is located on Lafayette Circle, in the suburb of Clifton, and is near the geographic. center of the city. This is not the highest Joint in the city but is one of the highest, and the nearest Bill of the same elevation is about 2 miles distant. n i e visible horizon of the Observatory is nearly level on all sides. all directions, ancl is mostly coverecl with trees. 7: only buildings in the vicinit of t,he Observatory are resi- ileiices. The elevat,ions of t s l e instruments above ground are as follows: Bnrometer, 5.8 feet; raingage, 3.1 feet; thermometers, 10.8 feet; anemometer, 50.8 feet,: and wind vane, 53.3 feet.
w. milo and rewking an a. P titude of 247 feet above the
The ground slopes away from the Observato
(See figs. 1 , 4, and 5.)
WIND RECORD.
In order t.o ta,hulnte in clet.iii1 tho dircc:tioii and velocity
nf the wind, 11 new fomi was prepred which sliows the number of Iiours the wind I-,lows from encli direc.tion, and tdie velocity of the wind from each direction. By the
use of this form the percentage of time the wind blew from each direction nncl the mean velocity for each direction were obtained‘ for each month, season, and the two years. Tahle 1 presents the form secured for
March, 1916.