ndensation which makes the
"circle" around the moon, or the morning cirro-stratus haze which
gradually thickens, passes over and obscures the sun, all which may be
followed by the easterly scud and winds: they are alike condensation in
the trade, the advance or forming condensation of a storm or showers.

The state of the weather, whether hot or cold, is extensively affected by
this trade current. As we have already suggested, the mere presence of the
sun in its summer solstice, or its absence in winter, is not an adequate
cause of all the sudden and various changes to which we are subject. The
state of the counter-trade, which is always over, or _within influential
distance of us_, and sometimes probably in contact with us--the nature of
the surface-winds which it is at any given time creating and attracting
around us, and the electric condition of the surface-atmosphere _induced_
by it, or by the immediate action of the earth's magnetism, produce those
sudden changes which mark our climate. When no intervening surface-winds
elevate it above us, and there is no storm or other condensation within
influential distance, it induces the gentle balmy S. W. wind of
spring--the cooling S. W. wind of summer--the peculiar Indian summer air
of autumn, or the comparatively moderate, although cold, open weather of
winter. If there be a partial tendency to condensation in it, the cumuli
form under the magnetic influence excited by the sunbeams from ten to
three o'clock in the day, and float gently away to the eastward,
disappearing before night-fall. If the disposition to condensation is
stronger, whether inherent or induced by an increased local activity of
terrestrial magnetism, these cumuli will increase toward night-fall, or
earlier, and terminate me showers; and if it is in a highly electrical
state, the still oppressive sultriness which precedes the tornado, and
that devastating scourge may appear. If this disposition to condensation
becomes extensive, cirri form and run into cirro-stratus, or they extend,
coalesce, and form stratus; the surface-wind will be attracted under them,
the thermometer fall in summer or rise in winter, and a storm begin.
Intense action and sudden cold may exist in and under this counter-trade
over the southern portion of the country, while all is calm, warm, and
balmy at the north. Heavy snow storms sometimes pass at the south when
there are none at the north, and a corresponding state of the weather