Cides on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts.*

(Calculated expressly for the American Almanac by Professor Leland P. Shidy, Chief of the Tidal Division of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey.)

+|+++++++++++++++++ | + | | | | | | | +++++ | ++++++ | +++++++++++++++ Plus or

++++| |+|+++ ||| +++||+|+|||| +++|++++++++++ | | + | +++ | | | + ||||Plus or

minus,

To find the time of high tide at any given point on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts find the time of high tide at Governors Island on the date desired and then add or subtract the difference in time as indicated in the above table.

Cides on the Pacific Coast.*

Compared to San Francisco, Cal.

(By Professor Leland P. Shidy. U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey.)

To find the time of high tide at any given point of the Pacific Coast find the time of high tide at Fort Point on the date desired and then add or substract the difference in time as indicated in the above table.

Cable of magnetic Declinations,

Or Compass Variations for January 1, 1903, with the Annual Change for the Period 1900-1905, for Various Places in the United States.

(For all of the compact part of the United States, Alaska and Porto Rico, east declination is decreasing and west declination is increasing; in the Territory of Hawaii and the Philippine Islands, however, east declination is increasing. The geographical positions are approximate and refer to the point of observation, usually on the outskirts of the city.) (Prepared expressly for the American Almanac by Professor Louis A. Bauer, Chief of the Magnetic Division of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey.)

Subdivisions of Geologic Time and Strata.

(Prepared Expressly for the American Almanac by Professor Willard C. Hayes, of the United States Geological Survey.)

The rocks forming the earth's crest are divided into three classes: (a) Sedimentary, including all rocks formed by aqueous, organic, glacial and eolian agencies; (b) Igneous, including all rocks that have been soliuified from a molten condition, both volcanic and plutonic; (e) Metamorphic, including altered rocks of either sedimentary or igneous origin, in which the acquired are more prominent than the original characteristics, together with the ancient crystalline schists of uncertain origin."

The sedimentary rocks are subdivided into formations, which are groups of strata of similar composition or containing the same fossils. The formations are grouped into larger aggregates called systems, which correspond to divisions of the time scale called periods. The systems and their corresponding periods are of world-wide occurrence, and standard terms are employed throughout the world. Formations, however, are local, and cannot generally be identified in more than a single geologic province. The following standard column is applicable only to the United States. It represents the most recent usage as adopted by the United States Geological Survey:

Age of reptiles.

Eocene

Upper Cretaceous..

Cretaceous...

Comanche

Groups and Formations,

South Atlantic and Gulf Coastal
Plain.

Columbia loam and gravel,

(Lafayette gravel.

Shell Creek limestone.
Caloosahatchee limestone.

Chesapeake sands.

Oak Grove beds.

Chipola group.

Chattahoochee beds.

Vicksburg limestone.

Jackson clays.

Claiborn limestone.

Hatchetigbee clays.

Midway limestone.

Texas Great Plains Region.

Montana sandstone,

Colorado shales.

Dakota sandstone.

Washita group.

Fredericksburg group.

Trinity sands.

North Atlantic Coastal Plain.

Arundel sands.

Patuxent clays.

Brunswick sandstone.

Lackatong shale.

Stockton sandstone and shale.

New York-Pennsylvania Region.
Dunkard sandstone.

(Monongehelasandstone and shale.
Conemaugh sandstone and shale.
Allegheny sandstone and shale.
Pottsville-conglomerate.

I Manch Chunk shale.
Pocono sandstone.

Chemung sandstone.
Portage sandstone.

Hamilton shale.

Marcellus limestone.

(Corniferous limestone.

Schoharie grits.

Oreskony sandstone.

Lower Heldenberg limestone.

Salina sandstone.

Niagara limestone.

Clinton sandstone.

Medina sandstone.

Hudson slate.
Utica shale.

Trenton limestone,

Chozy limestone.

Calciferous limestone.

Potsdam sandstone.
Acadia limestone.
Georgia slate.

Weather Bureau Signals.

Storm signals are displayed by the Weather Bureau of the United States Department of Agriculture at 141 stations situated on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States, from Eastport, Me., to Brownsville, Tex. The stations at Capes Henry and Jupiter are equipped for signalling by the international code and are prepared to transmit by telegraph the messages of passing vessels. In addition the department furnishes daily forecasts, which are telegraphed to all stations of the bureau, to railway officials, postmasters and others, through whom they are communicated to the public by means of the flag signals or the system of steam whistles adopted for this purpose.

The Weather Bureau's system of flag signals is as follows:

Clear or fair weather.

BLUE

Rain or snow.

BLUE

Local rain or snow.

Temperature signal.
No. 1, when hoisted alone, indicates fair weather, with stationary temperature.
No. 2, hoisted alone, indicates rain or snow and stationary temperature.
No. 3, hoisted alone, indicates local rain and stationary temperature.
No. 1, with No. 4 below it, indicates fair, but colder, weather.
No. 1, with No. 4 above it, indicates fair, but warmer, weather.
No. 2, with No. 4 below it, indicates colder weather, with rain or snow.
No. 2, with No. 4 above it, indicates warmer weather, with local rains.
No. 3, with No. 4 below it, indicates colder weather, with local rains.
No. 3, with No. 4 above it, indicates warmer weather, with local rains.
No. 1, with No. 5 above it, indicates fair weather and a cold wave.
No, 2, with No. 5 above it, indicates wet weather and a cold wave.
During the late Spring and

Cold wave.

early Fall anticipations of frost are also indicated by the cold wave signal. WIND DIRECTION AND STORM SIGNALS.

The following signals denoting wind directions and storm warnings are in use on the coast and the Great Lake ports:

They are cautionary against a wind velocity that will be dangerous to all classes of vessels.

EXPLANATIONS.

The appearance of the storm signal alone indicates that a storm of great violence may be expected. If the red pennant is hoisted above the storm signal it indicates that the wind will be easterly, probably from the northeasterly quadrant; if it is displayed below the storm signal it indicates that the wind will be southeasterly. The white pennant hoisted above the storm signal indicates a northwesterly wind; below the storm signal, a southwesterly wind. Thus:

Northeasterly winds.

Southeasterly winds.

Northwesterly winds.

Southwesterly winds. By night the warnings are given by means of lights, a red light indicating easterly winds; a red and white light westerly winds. In cases of the approach of a hurricane or of particularly severe and dangerous storm winds in the vicinity of the lakes or coast the warning is indicated by two red flags with black centres, hoisted one above the other. Thus:

EXPLANATION OF WHISTLE SIGNALS.

The first blast of the whistle, which is from fifteen to twenty seconds in duration, is sounded to attract attention, after which the regulation system of signals is followed: The longer blasts-four to six seconds in duration-refer to the weather; the shorter blasts-one to three seconds in duration-refer to the temperature.

口

Hurricane

Signal.

HOW TO OBTAIN FORECASTS.

Lower temperature.
Higher temperature.
Cold wave.

The Weather Bureau is anxious that its forecasts and weather charts shall have as wide publicity as possible, and is especially desirous that some person in every town in the United States shall publish its warnings for the benefit of the public. As far as practicable, therefore, the messages will be sent at the expense of the burean, but when this is impracticable they will be telegraphed "collect" at regular commercial rates. Moreover, if forecasts are already sent to one person in a town they will not be furnished to a second applicant except at his own expense.

If any persor desires to display these signals the necessary arrangements may easily be made upon application to the official in charge of the climate and crop service in the State in which he resides.

How to Foretell the Weather.

By WILLIAM A. EDDY, Inventor of Meteorological Kites.

Let chance observers of any flying kite notice the extent to which it veers from side to side, the sudden uprushes toward the zenith made by the kite and its equally sudden decline with the wind and they can safely forecast rain, severe local storms and high wind within twelve hours, and without consulting other instruments which may be inaccessible.

Probably the most importart forecast to be made by any citizen who may be his own forecaster is that pertaining to the cessation of a death-dealing hot wave. The clouds may indicate cooler conditions, which have already arrived aloft, but which have not yet reached the earth, and since relief from a hot wave comes from the upper air the cool wave predictions from clouds may be more certain than some of those made by the Weather Bureau forecasters, though not covering as long a period of time. The arrival of cold air aloft during a hot wave causes a decided change in the appearance of the sky. The thin mist or haze, like very thin steam vapor, which has been present during many days of intense heat, is replaced by a sky of a clearer and darker blue, with films of cirrus, or high white feathery clouds, shutting out about half of the azure. The heat at the earth is still oppressive. This sky condition Indicates a break in the heat wave within twenty-four hours preceded by a thunderstorm and a fall of about ten degrees, followed by another fall of ten degrees on the following day.

A new indication of rain and coming coolness which I have just discovered is that the clouds increase in speed and descend to a lower altitude. During steady rain all day I have found the clouds at times to be less than 600 feet above the earth, and I have demonstrated this by cloth kites, flown during rain for this purpose, by measuring the altitude of the kite just as it faded out in the cloud. The kite appeared and disappeared, depending on the varying height of the cloud.

The high white pinnacles known as thunderheads are of two types, and are very important indicators of coming weather. Some of these clouds are relatively small in diameter and show a tendency to fade away. They are known as heat clouds, and generally appear about three days before the expiration of a sustained hot wave. They indicate no relief near at hand. The other type of thunderhead is large in volume, accumulates, piles up in pinnacles, narrow at the top with stratified bases, with misty lower edges. They indicate relief before night or early in the evening, with a further fall in temperature the following day and the end of the hot wave. If lightning flashes from cloud to cloud and rarely to the earth the cool air is rushing in aloft, causing different electric strains in adjacent clouds. These thunderheads, which are about to break up a hot wave, have a perceptible rapidity of motion from the southwest, and form all around the horizon. If after several days of a hot wave the humidity exceeds 80 per cent, and if the temperature at 9 a. m. approaches 90 degrees, then a break in the heat is practically certain to occur before sundown.

At certain times when a region of heavy rain or intense cold or heat extends for over a thousand miles to the westward of the point for which a forecast has been made by the Weather Bureau, it is then that the forecast is almost certain to be verified. But when storm centres and barometric high pressure are feeble or lack intensity to show little progressive motion, then the Weather Bureau forecast may be defeated by dissolution of the storm or by the slowness, swiftness or other incalculable characteristics of it. Then cloud forecasting comes into play, and will do the work well if careful records or observations are made of what resulted from previous like conditions. Cloud indications are superior for short forecasts because they denote conditions actually at hand.

BAROMETRIC OBSERVATIONS.

The following rules are those which are used by the Seawanhaka-Corinthian Yacht Club in their very successful attempts to forecast the weather with the aid of the barometer.

A Rising Barometer.-A rapid rise indicates unsettled weather. A gradual rise indicates settled weather. A rise with dry air and cold increasing in Summer indicates wind from the northward; and if rain has fallen, better weather may be expected. A rise with moist air and a low temperature indicates wind and rain from the northward. A rise with southerly winds indicates fine weather.

A Steady Barometer.-With dry air and seasonable temperature indicates a continuance of very fine

weather.

A Falling Barometer.-A rapid fall indicates stormy weather. A rapid fall with westerly wind indicates stormy weather from the northward. A fall with a northerly wind indicates storm, with rain and bail in Summer, and snow in Winter. A fall with increased moisture in the air and heat increasing indicates wind and rain from the southward. A fall with dry air and cold increasing in Winter indicates snow. A fall after very calm and warm weather indicates rain with squally weather. The barometer rises for northerly winds, including from northwest by north to the eastward for dry or less wet weather, for less wind, or for more than one of these changes, except on a few occasions, when rain, hail, or snow comes from the northward with strong wind. The barometer falls for southerly wind, including from southeast by south to the westward, for wet weather, for stronger wind or for more than one of these changes, except on a few occasions, moderate wind, with rain or snow, comes from the northward.

The general movement of storms in the United States is from west to east, and those who have access to the maps published by the United States Weather Bureau may follow the course of these storms, which appear upon these maps like a series of atmospheric waves, of which the crests are designated as "Highs,' and the troughs or depressions as "Lows." These alternating "Highs" and "Lows" have an average easterly movement of about 600 miles per day.

With these maps as a guide, therefore, and with the barometer and the thermometer as assistants, comparatively successful prognostication of the weather ought not to be an impossibility.

In the absence of a barometer a strip of sea weed which is kept in a room warmed artificially will often prove a practical substitute. During fair weather it will remain dry and have a somewhat dusty feeling to the touch, while as the moisture increases it will become more and more limp and sticky, which may be taken as an indication of probable rain.

A rosy sky at sunset, whether clouded or clear; a gray sky in the morning, or a low dawn, are said to indicate fair weather. A red morning sky, presages bad weather. Soft looking clouds indicate fair weather, with moderate breezes; hard-edged clouds indicate wind; rolled or ragged clouds, strong wind. A pale yellow sky at sunset is indicative of rain.