Tables of the
velocity of winds are familiar to our readers.
Let us next advert to the connection of the atmosphere with Vapor and
Evaporation. The vapor rising from the earth and the sea by
evaporation, promoted by dry air, by wind, by diminished pressure, or
by heat, is borne along in vesicles so rare as to float on the bosom
of the winds, sometimes a grateful shade of clouds, at other times
condensed and gravitating in showers of rain. Thus it enriches the
soil, or cools the air, or reflects back to the earth its radiated
heat. At times the clouds, freighted with moisture, present the most
gorgeous hues, and we have over us a pavilion more magnificent than
any ever constructed by the hand of man. These clouds are not merely
the distilleries of rain, but the reservoirs of snow and hail, and
they are the agents of electric and magnetic storms.
Notwithstanding their variety, clouds are easily classified, and are
now by universal consent distinguished as follows.
In the higher regions of the air we look for the Cirri, the Curl
Clouds. They are light, lie in long ranges, apparently in the
direction of the magnetic pole, and are generally curled up at one
extremity.
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