Abstract
American Meteorological Journal, January.—The audibility of fog-signals, by Prof. H. A. Hazen. The recent grounding of a passenger steamer on Great Gull Island in a dense fog, within five thousand feet due west of a second-class siren which was sounding at the time, calls attention to several points referred to in a paper by the same author in the journal for October last. This siren has been heard to a distance of twenty miles under favourable circumstances; but the captain of another steamer, which approached the island from the west at the time of the accident, states that his look-out was unable to hear any sound as they approached the island, whereas, after passing, the whistle could be plainly heard.—Atmospheric phenomena in the Arctic regions in their relation to dust, by Prof. W. H. Brewer. The author states that none of the fogs in high latitudes are so white and opaque as those seen south of lat. 50°, and that it is rare that they are so opaque that large dark objects cannot be seen at a distance of two hundred feet. In the Greenland seas the fogs were, as a rule, very much wetter. Often when the fog was so transparent that objects could be seen for half a mile or even a mile from the ship, the water would drip like rain from the rigging. On returning to the south, where the fogs were very dense and objects could not be seen at a ship's length, there was a marked contrast in their wetness; the air did not appear as if entirely saturated. The dust particles in the air over the southern waters were ample to collect all the moisture, while in the Greenland fogs condensation went on as if there was not nearly dust enough in the air to supply the demand.
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Scientific Serials. Nature 53, 309–310 (1896). https://doi.org/10.1038/053309a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/053309a0