The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-10-08

surface. vet we could note all of its
valleys and heights as if they were
drawn on a relief map. All or the
mountain SUBMITS were encircled by
balls of cloud (cumulil. some Of which
extended deeply into the valleys.
No Birds In High Air.
"The birds which appear from earthI
to he near the highest mountain peaksI
never really lily very high. The atmos-
pheTe above 1000 feet appears to be-
without a single inhabftant. There waSI
not bird to be seen, when we rose t0l
10000 feet, although we We're over thel
valleys in which the ravens are most
common. and l watched intentiy for 81
glimpse of one.
Above $4,000 feet the coiorfng Or psI
balloon and ourselves appeared to
change. The sum cast no warm yellow
light ON us, butt a pure white light
white to ghastEimess. ALI Of the shad-
Ows were a deep black. noted the
depth of this shadow when il mad to
look for something in a shaded corner
of the car
IF we looked first at the horizon and
then at earth the former seemed 10 ba'
blUe-violet. the latter a bright yellow.
The blue-viOlet c0loring of the earth.
appeared at $4,000 feet and over. This
was applicable by the fact that thes
CORDED in the atmospheric covering of
the earth as we looked towards ft, 1eav-
ing the violet rays ln the ascendant.
Seen from the moor th@ eaFfh% must
look violet. Looking at s1ountains..
distant not less than fifty mfIesmthey
appeared a bright yellow. lin thiscasa
the white surfaces act as sources Of
light behind the thick layers Of atInos-
phere. and the penetrating yellow-red
light (refected as blue) made the dis
tant mountains appear yellow To- our
eyes.
Gorgeous Coloring.
1.-THE lakes lying beneath US offered
a strong contrast to the yeIlowfsl hor-
lion. Lake Lehman was Que mass OF
deep blue, the color of q perfect san
phire. When l looked at the sky T.
found that it was no longer blue bur
was so dark as to be almost black 10
reminded me of the color of the Black
sea. Here is another proof that ii is
the atmosphere alone which makes the
sky appear blue to us on earth, but
when we had assembled through 10 600
feet of it, this blue veil was for the
most part beneath us and we saw the
sky in all its f0rbiddlng darkness We
noted, too, that 1t made no differenceain
the lower attitudes whether the air was
laden with 10 per cent or 81 per cent
moisture. the blueness of the sky was
the same. Can we any longer main
tain the theory that this heavenly blue
is made UP of little PARTICLES of NATTER
In1possiblel answered by knowledge OF
color. In that case it could never be
so constant in it's cOlOr-tOne. It ought
then to change from purple to hlueish
green. What other theory can be slIe--
gestedG? The heavenly blue must be-
long to the atmosphere as such. Only
if the OFFICIALLY pure atmosphere Isl its
bearer can 1T operate as it does ON the
landscape. when we observe lit.
The Blue of the Sky Explained.
at seems to me that we are forced
to believe that there is a direct Tefiec-
ton of the heavenly blue rays through
the molecules of the air. These appear
ances are we'll known IN fi0urescense.
1t is not true. then. that the heavenly
blue is a phenomenon OF fiQuFescense2
This idea. does not seem to- me t0b be in
contradiction with any of the color
phenomena of the atmosphere. In
fluids. such as petroleum, for example.
we are familiar with this phenomenon.
If we could have other gases i'm SUCH
thick layers as the air we might
observe similar f1ourescense
THE meteorological observations
were in the hands of DR.. Julius M&urer-
who was provided with all of the latest
and best devices for registering the
results of this experiment To observe
the atmospheric pressure he had two
registering aneroid bSrOmeTeFs and one
quicksilver barometer for coFrectfve
purposes The temperature was taken
by an AsEmann thermometer fixed to
the balloon ard read by a spyglaSs4 A
thermOgraph and hygrugrapfI were
fixed in position by sticks in a willow
basket covered by a white cloth, but
open at tine top, the basket being tied
to the outside of the car. He also had
a late model baIloOn-barogTaph which
registered it's results automatically.
1T is most remarkable. as shown in
the tables and self-registering diagram
of the hygrograph. to note the extreme
dryness of the upper layers of the at
1nosphere between 16, goo and $4,000 feet.
According to the hygrograph. the rel
alive humidity is only 20 or 90 degrees
As a pioneer scientific expedition this
is considered most successful, pointing