n of the storm, partly in a broken or detached state. This
stratus cloud is often concealed from view by the nimbus, and scud
clouds in the rainy portion of the storm, but by careful
observations, may be sufficiently noticed to determine the general
uniformity of its specific course, and, approximately, its general
elevation.

"The more usual course of this extended cloud stratum, in the United
States, is from some point in the horizon between S. S. W. and W. S.
W. Its course and velocity do not appear influenced in any
perceptible degree by the activity or direction of the storm-wind
which prevails beneath it. On the posterior or dry side of the gale,
it often disappears before the arrival of the newly condensed cumuli
and cumulo-stratus which not unfrequently float in the colder winds,
on this side of the gale."

"The general height of the great stratus cloud which covers a storm,
in those parts of the United States which are near the Atlantic, can
not differ greatly from one mile; and perhaps is oftener below than
above this elevation. This estimate, which is founded on much
observation and comparison, appears to comprise, at the least, the
limit or thickness of the proper storm-wind, which constitutes the
revolving gale.

"It is not supposed, however, that this disk-like stratum of
revolving wind is of equal height or thickness throughout its extent,
nor that it always reaches near to the main canopy of stratus cloud.
It is probably higher in the more central portions of the gale than
near its borders, in the low latitudes, than in the higher, and may
thin out entirely at the extremes, except in those directions where
it coincides with an ordinary current. Moreover, in large portions of
its area, there may be, and often is, more than one storm-wind
overlying another, and severally pertaining to contiguous storms. In
the present case, we see, from the observations of Professor Snell
and Mr. Herrick, at Amherst, Massachusetts, and at Hamden, Maine (115
and 135 b.), that the true storm wind, at those places, was
super-imposed on another wind; and various facts and observations may
be adduced to show that brisk winds, of great horizontal extent, are
often limited, vertically to a very thin sheet or stratum."

Much of the foregoing is graphically