1333. Fogs, like clouds, will arrest heat, which is radiated upwards by the earth, and if they are very dense, and of considerable perpendicular extent, may remit to it as much as they receive. Fogs do not, in any instance, furnish a real exception to the general rule, that whatever exists in the atmosphere, capable of stopping or impeding the passage of radiant heat, will prevent or lessen the appearance at night of a cold on the surface of the earth, greater than that of the neighbouring air. The water deposited upon the earth, during a fog at night, may sometimes be derived from two different sources, one of which is a precipitation of moisture from a considerable part of the atmosphere, in consequence of its general cold; the other, a real formation of dew, from the condensation, by means of the superficial cold of the ground, of the moisture of that portion of the air which comes in contact with it. In such a state of things, all bodies will become moist, but those especially which most readily attract dew in clear weather.
