The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-13
A PLAGUE OF FOG.
From The N. 7. Tunes.

From the NJ Y. Times.
Aristophanes, when he put certain invo-
cation into the mouth of Socrates, must have
been under the influence of some such me-
teorological conditions as those to which, for
several weeks past New York has been SUBJ
jected. In the 'leafy month of june we
might, without over-sanguine anticipations,
have looked for q fine day or two; but we
have thus far been treated to little more than
"a foul and pestilent congregation of vapors."
The protracted fog and the never-ending
drizzle are teaching us, in a word, what it
is customary to regard as at once the main
English incentive to ennaS and excuse for
suicide, Aristophanes makes even the
cloudes themselves SO exasperated with the
dull, encircling mists, that they propose to
scatter and dissolve them, to the end that
they may ''show themselves to the earth in
their immortal beauty" The Greek satirist
may have been a little uncertain in his
science, but he had just conception of the
effect of fogs and mist upon the spirits and
temper of mankind. These are elastic, as he
knew, and with an occasional relief from
pressure, return with ease to their normal
cheerfulness. But when, as of late on our
Atlantic seaboard, days and weeks follow
each other .enlivened by the scantiest and
most transient CLEANS of sunshine, and be-
slowing as staple weather succession of
dismal fogs, relieved by steady down-pour,
Aristophanes may have doubted, as we do,
whether there might not be limit to human
endurance. t'.
There is melancholy consolation in re-
fecting that others have passed through
worse vicissitudes than those which have
lately disturbed ourselves. In London one
expects to hear of dense fogs as matters of
course, 80 that accounts of extraordinary
phenomena of the sort that reach us, rs oc-
curing in that city, excite little wonder or
attention. But even in beautiful Paris such
things now and then have been. An old
journal of the reign of Henry Ill, published
in French, says that son Sunday, the oath of
January, 1858, there rose over the City of
Paris and its environs SO dense fog lasting
from noon until the next day, as never was
seen before within the memory of man. 1t
was SO black and thick that two persons walk
ing together in the street could not see each
other, and were compelled to provide them
selves with torches, in order to recognize one
another, when it was not yet o'clock. Very
many wild geese, and other flying creatures
of the air, were found where they had fallen
bewildered in the court yards of the houses,
having dashed themselves against the build
ings and the chimneys." This was nothing
| however, to the great fog of 1888, which
spread all over Europe and lasted for some
thing like two months; or to the fogs at Lima,
which are said to have lasted in some in
stances for half year. In the latter city,
however, 1T seldom or never rains, SO that the
fog, by moistening the soil and preserving
the freshness of the vegetation, is a blessing
and not an unmitigated annoyance.
Some philosophers tells us that we ought to
find comfort in our recent af1iction, in the
probability that it is caused by the Gulf
Stream, which, by being DETECTED nearer
and nearer to the American coast is gradu-
ally altering the climate, and making it mild
and soft, like that of the southwestern coun-
ties of England. But those who have been
off Newfoundland will have an uneasy APP
prehension that the climate of that damp To-
cality, rather than of Torquay or Bourne
mouth, is what such change would bring
us; and certainly late experience gives color
to the fear. The theory that we are indebted
for our obstinate visitor to the proximity OF
icebergs is plausible enough in a scientific
sense, although not corroborated by incom.
!, ing ships. In either case, the grounds foi
congratulation are slight, since On both by.
potheses we can only look to be made un,
i comfortable without any visible correspond
ing advantage. A third possible canse is
even less agreeable to contemplate. We
know that the phenomenon is produced by
the meeting of two currents of air of une
quail temperature. 1t is conceivable, then
if not probable, that by some as yet mys
terious process two such currents have
established constant friction in the neigh
borhood, so that our atmosphere may bt
1 reduced to state Of chronic murkiness
and fogs be with us much more frequently
than we have been accustomed to see then
heretofore. Lieutenant De Haven, of the
United States navy, during his expedition il
search of Sir John Franklin. saw, we are told
what appsaIed similar Instance. AT th'