The Sun. — 1870-06-25 (London, England)

PLAGUE OF FOG.  Aristophanes, when he put a certain invocation into the mouth of Socrates, must have been under the influence of some such meteorological conditions as those to which, for several weeks past, New York has been subjected. In the " leafy month of June" we might, without over-sanguine anticipations, have looked for a fine day or two ; but we have thus far been treated to little more than " a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours." 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 ennui and excuse for • suicide Aristophanes makes even the clouds themselves so ' exasperated with the dull, encircling mists, that they propose to scatter and dissolve them, to the end that they may " shew themselves to the earth in their immortal beauty." The Greek satirist may have been a little uncertain in his science, but he had a 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 gleams of sunshine, and bestowing as staple weather a succession of dismal fogs, relieved by steady down-pour, Aristophanes may have doubted, as we do, whether there might not be limits to. human endurance. There is a melancholy consolation in reflecting that others have • passed through worse vicsisitudes than those which have lately disturbed ourselves. In London one .expects to hear of dense fogs as matters of course, so that accounts of extraordinary phenomena of the sort that reach us, as occuring 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 111., published in French, says that "on Sunday the 24th of January, 1588, there rose over the City of Paris and its environs so dense a fog, lasting from noon until the next day, as never was seen before within the memory of man. It was so black and thick that two persons walking together in the street could not see each other, and were compelled to provide themselves with torches, in order to recognize one another, when it was not yet three o'clock. Very many wild geese, and other flying creatures of the air, were found where they had fallen bewildered in the courtyards of the houses, having dashed themselves against the buildings and the chimneys." This was nothing, however, to the great fog of 1783, which spread all over Europe, and lasted for something like two months ; or to the fogs at Lima, which are said to have lasted in some instances for half a year. In the latter city, however, it 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 tell us that we ought to find comfort in our recent affliction, in the probability that it is caused by the Gulf Stream, which, by being deflected nearer and nearer to the American coast, is gradually altering the climate, and making it mild and soft, like that of the south-western counties of England. But those who have been off Newfoundland will have an uneasy apprehension that the climate of that damp locality, rather than of Torquay 'or Bournemouth, is what such a change would bring us ; and certainly late experience gives colour 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 incoming ships. In either case, the grounds for congratulations are slight, since on both hypotheses we can only look to be made uncomfortable without any visible corresponding advantage. A third possible cause is even less agreeable to contemplate. We know that the phenomenon is produced by the meeting of two currents of air of unequal temperature. It is conceivable, then, if not probable, that by some as yet mysterious process, two such currents have established a constant friction in the neighbourhood, so' that our atmosphere may be reduced to a state of chronic murkiness, and fogs be with us much more frequently than we have been accustomed to see them heretofore. Lieutenant De Haven, of the United States Navy, during his expedition in search of Sir John Franklin, saw, we are told, what appeared a similar instance. At the northern extremity of Wellington Channel he beheld a dense fog-bank, motionless and suspendedin the air—a " water- sky, " rising above the Polar Sea discovered by Dr. Kane in 1854. Very much such a sky seems of late to have hovered over New York, and we can only still'cling to the hope that we shall get rid of it befor the Fall season fairly sets in. The French always associate London with melancholy vapours, and the weeping sky typifies for them the conventional gloom of the English character. When the choice drama of "Jack Sheppard " was adapted and brought out at the Porte St. Martin—the principal scenes being in the London streets —it was christened Les Chevaliers de la Brouillard "  " The Knights of the Fog "—and dun-coloured gauzes were stretched across the stage to give proper effect to the action. If the atmosphere of New York does not quickly change for the better, we shall eventually eclipse the wellwon reputation of London, and usurp in the estimation of the lively Gaul the place she has hitherto occupied. The capital of perfidious Albion will no longer be to his mind the synonym of sadness and weariness of spirit—the distinction will be fairly wrested away by the foggy triumphs of Manhattan.—New York Times.