Magnetic Arrangement of Clouds

Abstract

THERE is a curious arrangement of clouds which, though seen myself for the first time this year, may doubtless have been observed by others, though I have never seen it referred to anywhere. Light clouds of the cirrus formation apparently at great elevations range themselves round two poles—one about in the direction of the magnetic north pole, and the other in that of the south. The space between the two poles is filled more or less completely by wispy cirri. The exact point where the various threads or wisps should form themselves into a pole I have never been able to clearly see, owing to the dense stratum of vapour which even on the clearest day accumulates at the horizon. On Sunday, October 29, the arrangement above noticed was remarkably distinct in the afternoon.