ruption in the history of the world, that of
Asama, in Japan, in the year 1783. In that eruption, fifty-six thousand
people were killed and the entire atmosphere of the earth was shaken.
Like Krakatoa, you see, boys, it took three years for the dust to settle
down."

"But what has that got to do with the army, sir?" Fred asked.

"I was just coming to that," the Forecaster replied. "If Napoleon had
known as much about the weather as we do now, boys, the world's history
might have been very different. There had been some marvellous sunsets
during the years of 1810 and 1811 and the spring of 1812, but none of
the scientists of that time thought of observing them or finding any
significance in them, nor did any of them imagine that such could have
any effect on the weather. Before Napoleon started on his march for
Russia, which was begun in June, he asked the French meteorologists at
what time the Russian winter usually began. They told him that if he
could begin his return by the middle of November, his army could get
safely out of Russia before the winter set in.

"But, boys, the three years before that campaign had been three years of
eruptions. St. George, in the West Indies, erupted in 1810; Etna, the
great volcano of Sicily, had an eruption in 1811; and La Soufriere,
which broke loose again in your lifetime, boys, erupted in 1812. As a
result, the upper air was full of dust, and the middle air was even more
filled, for while these eruptions were not as powerful as Asama and
Krakatoa, there had been a continual replenishment of the stores of
volcanic dust.

"So Napoleon and his army started off. The great march into Russia began
with an army of four hundred and fifty thousand men, in torrid summer
heat. The crops were still green, for the spring had been late and the
summer most unseasonable. As a result, there was not enough food for the
horses and terrible epidemics of disease broke out among them. Napoleon
was always especially strong in cavalry, over eighty thousand of his
troops being mounted. When, to this, is added the twenty thousand horses
needed for officers and for the artillery, it is easy to see that the
lack of forage seriously handicapped the army. It is by no means easy to
feed a hundred thousand horses. Before the army had advanced more than
ten days' march, one-fourth of the horses had died.

"The Russians, thoroughly realizing that their strongest ally was
Distance, retreated, without giving bat