The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-18
THE WHY OF INDIAN SUMMER.
A Meteorological Explanation of |
 Years LOve1iest Season.

A metefOifgfc0l ExptnnauOm OI tno
 Years Loveliest Season.
 Scientific American.
 No period of the year excels in love- Illness the one sometimes known as "the fifth season." Beginning about hhe middle of October it Is often pro- longed into December. Its character istics are a calm, soft, hazy atmos- phere, through which day after day the sun. shorn of his beams, rises and sets like a sphere of copper or gold, accord ing to each beholder's degree of poet ic perception. Sounds at great dis tances are distinctly audible. Objects. unless close by, are discerned with diff ficulty. All Nature, as if to prepare itself against the blasts of winter. ap- pears somnolent The mornings are cool. with lowland fogs soon dissipat- ed by the sun, and the atmosphere maintains a stiffness which scarcely stirs the richly-tinted but rapidly fad ing foliage.
 The Northern hemisphere enjoys the finest displays of this supplementary season. the geographic limits of which the records of meteorologists and cli- matologists enable us to define. Its characteristics are particularly notice- able in the far Northwest Matthew Macfie, F. R. c. S., is authority for the tatement that in Vancouver Island and other portions of British America there Is a second growth of verdure lasting until after Christmas. This period annually beautifies the zone running through New England and Canada westward to Lakes Michigan and Superior, thence southwestward to Kansas and Nebraska, and, including Minnesota, the Dakotas, Montana. Ida ho, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon and ToIi thxun xxyo rd over British America to the Arctic circle. While 1t does not extend over the lower limits of the United States. 1t is referred to by two or three of the historians of Mexico.
 Formerly the smokiness and the somewhat greater degree of warmth were thought to be caused by mountain fires, or the burning of the vegetable decidua collected in the autumn for that purpose. The haze and increased warmth are due to the annual forma- tion of what has been termed the aerial gulf stream" or 'vapor plane" This high current, generated in equa- ,torial seas by ascending masses of va- por-charged air, flows northward through the upper atmosphere, over sweeps the Southern and Gulf States and descends toward the earth or ocean as 1t approaches New England and Canada on its journey toward the po- lar circle. In the afternoon and night. when the earth throws off the heat received during the da, especially in the autumn weeks, when the tempera- ture is declining and the capacity of the air to retain moisture is on the de- crease. the presence of this mantle Of vapor arrests radiation. The heat absorbing power of this blanket of aaueuous vapor" has been clearly dem onstrated by Prof Tyndall. Covering the remaining vegetations and the har- vests as with a shield, 1t protracts the grain -ripening period to meet the ne- cessities of the higher attitudes.
 The earliest explorers of America re- cord their appreciation of the beauties of this season, but did not assign to 1t a specific name Our pioneer histo- rians. notably Jefferson. note its fea- lures as among the most fascinat ng exhibited by our climate. but do not designate it as Indian summer" a. name which now belongs to 1t by com mon consent of the people of the Unit ed States, Canada, Australia and por- tion of Europe.
 The first record appearance of the name Indian summer" is found under date of October 13, 1794. in the jour nal of Major Ebenezer Denny. an ar my officer stationed at Fort Le Boeuf.