of
delicate, gauzy clouds developed at a low altitude, apparently in still
air, but doubtless at the base of a hurricane stratum. Whirling round
rapidly in eddying flocculi, they quickly tailed away to the north,
evaporating and disappearing.

The auditory sense was strangely affected by these lulls. The contrast
was so severe when the racking gusts of an abating wind suddenly gave
way to intense, eerie silence, that the habitual droning of many weeks
would still reverberate in the ears. At night one would involuntarily
wake up if the wind died away, and be loth to sleep "for the hunger of
a sound." In the open air the stillness conveyed to the brain an
impression of audibility, interpreted as a vibratory murmur.

During one hour on March 22 it blew eighty-six miles. On the morning
of that day there was not much snow in the air and the raging sea was a
fearful sight. Even the nearest of the islands, only half a mile off the
land, was partially hidden in the clouds of spray. What an impossible
coast this would be for the wintering of a ship!

Everybody knows that the pressure exerted by a wind against an object in
its path mounts up in much greater proportion than the velocity of the
wind. Thus may be realized the stupendous force of the winds of Adelie
Land in comparison with those of half the velocity which fall within
one's ordinary experience. As this subject was ever before us, the
following figures quoted from a work of reference will be instructive.
The classification of winds, here stated, is that known as the "Beaufort
scale." The corresponding velocities in each case are those measured
by the "Robinson patent" anemometer; our instrument being of a similar
pattern

___________________________________________________________________
Beaufort scale |Velocities|Pressures | Apparent effect |
| in miles | in lbs. | |
| per hour | square | |
| foot | |
| | area | |
__________________|__________| _________|_________________________|
0|Calm | 2 | 0.02 |May cause smoke to |
| | | | move form vertical |
1|Light air | 4 | 0.06 |Moves the leaves of trees|
2|Light breeze | 7 | 0.19 |Moves small b