CHAPTER IX.

Before proceeding to do this, however, it may be well to look at some theories which have been advanced, and to a greater or less extent adopted, and at their bearing upon the question.

The calorific theory is at present the prevailing one in Europe and in this country. Meteorologists there and here refer all atmospheric conditions and phenomena to the influence of heat. The principal applications of that theory have been considered. But within the last few years the elasticity and tension of the aqueous vapor of the atmosphere have received much attention, as exerting an auxiliary or modifying influence. Professor Dove, of Berlin, who ranks perhaps as the most distinguished meteorologist of that continent, attributes barometric variations to lateral overflows, and, in the upper regions, resulting from the elevation of the atmosphere by expansion; and in this view meteorologists of Europe seem generally to acquiesce. In an article sent to Colonel Sabine, and recently republished in the American Journal of Science, January, 1855, in thus attempting to account for the annual variation of barometric pressure, which occurs in Europe and Asia, and, indeed, over the entire hemisphere. He says:

"From the combined action or the variations of aqueous vapor, and of the dry air, we derive immediately the periodical variations of the whole atmospheric pressure. As the dry air and the aqueous vapor mixed with it, press in common on the barometer, so that the up-borne column of mercury consists of two parts, one borne by the dry air, the other by the aqueous vapor, we may well understand that as with increasing temperature the air expands, and by reason of its augmented volume rises higher, and its upper portion overflows laterally," etc.

And in another place he says:

"From the magnitude of the variations in the northern hemisphere, and the extent of the region over which it prevails, we must infer that at the time of diminished pressure a lateral overflow probably takes place," etc.

Doubtless, the mean pressure of the atmosphere, in summer, in the northern hemisphere, is less than in winter, in some localities, and greater in others, and it differs in different countries of equal temperature. And this is all very intelligible. The mean of the pressure for the month is made up by averaging all the elevations and depressions. During a month, showing a very low mean, the barometer may, at times, attain its highest altitude, if the depressions below the mean are great or more frequent. The barometer is depressed during storms, and ranges high during set fair weather. Ordinarily, therefore, the more stormy the season the more diminished the mean pressure; and it is a mistake to look to an overflow to account for the fact. The changes in the location of the atmospheric machinery, and consequent change in the amount and severity of falling weather, and the periodic frequency and character of storms, and consequent periodic depressions and elevations of the barometer, explain the annual mean variations, as they do the other phenomena. But it is perfectly consistent with the calorific theory to attempt to account for these differences by another of those ever-necessary modifications, viz.: the different tension and elasticity of aqueous vapor in different countries of equal temperature; and then to suppose an expansion of the whole body of the atmosphere and a lateral overflow from the place where the air is expanded, on to some other, where it is not; and thus suppose all necessary currents in the upper regions, setting hither and yon, by the force of gravity alone. And apparently he who is best at supposition becomes the most distinguished meteorologist. Perhaps I have already said all that I ought to be pardoned for saying, in relation to the utter absurdity of attributing all meteorological phenomena to the agency of heat; but when I find such views as those which that article contains, emanating from so distinguished a man, sanctioned by the President of the British Association, and copied into the leading journal of science in this country, I can not forbear a further and a somewhat critical examination of them. There is more error of supposition and less truth in it, than in any other article regarding the science, of equal length, which has fallen under my notice.

What is the height of this expansion? The moisture of evaporation ascends, ordinarily, but a few thousand feet. The atmosphere grows regularly cooler, from the earth to the trade, and the increased warmth that is felt at the surface extends but little way. Currents of warm air do not ascend. The strata maintain, substantially, their relative positions; and this is a most beneficent provision. In northern latitudes of the temperate zone, all the warmth derived from a few hours' sunshine is needed at the surface; and, deplorable, indeed, would be our condition, if the atmosphere, as fast as warmed by the rays of the sun, were to hasten up, and the frigid strata descend in its place. The earth would not be habitable. All the warm air on its surface would be rising as soon as it became warmed, and the cold air above be descending, and enveloping us with the chilling strata which are ever floating within two or three miles above us. No. Infinite wisdom has ordered it otherwise. The laws of magnetism and of static-electric induction and attraction keep the strata in their places, and preserve to us the warmth which the solar rays afford or produce. The inhabitant of the valley, in a high northern latitude, in summer, can plant, and sow, and reap, at the base of the mountain whose summit penetrates the stratum of continual congelation, and up its sides, almost to the line of perpetual snow; and, as he looks upon the fruits of his labor, and up to the snow-clad peak that towers above him, can thank his Maker for placing a warm equatorial current, a perpetual barrier, between the fertility and warmth which surround him, and the cold destructive strata above; and thank Him for not creating such a state of things, as certain meteorologists insist we shall believe He has created. Again, where are the upper regions, from which the lateral overflow takes place? The atmosphere is differently estimated, at from thirty to forty-five miles, or more, in height. Whatever its height may be, it is exceedingly attenuated in its "upper regions."

Gay-Lussac marked the barometer at 12-95/100 inches at the height of 23,040 feet. Two thirds of the atmospheric density, then, is within five miles of the earth. Air, too, is compressible. Allowing for the latter and the attenuation, how many miles in vertical depth, of its "upper regions," must move from one portion to another, to depress the barometer two inches--its range sometimes in twenty-four hours--or even half an inch? Let the computation be made, and see how startling the proposition, how utterly impossible that the theory can be true.

The distinguished Professor, in the paper referred to, introduces his theory of the formation of hurricanes, and we quote--

"If we suppose the upper portions of the air ascending over Asia and Africa to flow off laterally, and if this takes place suddenly, it will check the course of the upper or counter-current above the trade-wind, and force it to break into the lower current.

"An east wind coming into a S. W. current must necessarily occasion a rotatory movement, turning in the opposite direction to the hands of a watch. A rotatory storm, moving from S. E. to N. W., in the lower current or trade, would, in this view, be the result of the encounter of two masses of air, impelled toward each other at many places in succession, the further cause of the rotation (originating primarily in this manner) being that described by me in detail in a memoir 'On the Law of Storms,' translated in the 'Scientific Memoirs,' vol. iii. art. 7. Thus, it happens that the West India hurricanes, and the Chinese typhoons occur near the lateral confines on either side of the great region of atmospheric expansion, the typhoons being probably occasioned by the direct pressure of the air from the region of the trade-winds over the Pacific, into the more expanded air of the monsoon region, and being distinct from the storms appropriately called by the Portuguese 'temporales,' which accompany the out-burst of the monsoon when the direction of the wind is reversed."

The analogy between this, and a theory of Mr. Redfield's, will be noticed further on. But I remark, in passing, that there is not a fact or inference in this paragraph which will bear examination.

1. There is no such regular S. W. wind over the surface trade, as he supposes. Doubtless, there are, occasionally, secondary S. W. currents between the counter-trade and the surface one, with partial condensation, for much of both becomes depolarized by their reciprocal action and precipitation, and these induced S. W. currents are sometimes so strong as to usurp the place of the surface-trade, and become very violent in the latter part of hurricanes; but such is not the usual course of the upper currents of the West Indies, as the progress of storms there, and observation, prove.

2. There can not be any periods of extensive and sudden expansion over Africa. If there is any place on the earth which has a more uniformly progressive temperature, either way, and is more free from sudden extremes, or which is more arid and destitute of aqueous vapor, and sudden aqueous expansions, than another, it is Africa. No such occasional sudden expansions are there possible.

3. Winds do not, and can not, "encounter." They stratify upon each other. They are produced by the action of opposite electricity, and are connected together in their origin and action. The atmosphere is never free from the regular and irregular currents, however invisible for the want of condensation. Aeronauts find them in the most serene days. They exist without encounter or tendency to rotation, every where, and at all times; even over the head of the distinguished Professor, whether he sleeps or is awake. We can all see them when there is condensation, and it is rarely the case that there is not some degree of it in some of them.

4. That "Great region of expansion" is a chimera. It does not exist. It is a region of lower temperature, and of condensation, instead of expansion of aqueous vapor. The trade does not rise in it, or the S. W. wind overflow from it. See the table cited page 165.

5. The hurricanes do not originate in the surface trades, as he supposes. They originate in the belt of rains, the supposed "region of expansion," and issue out of it; or in the counter-trade, where volcanic elevations rise far into or above the surface trade.

6. This hypothesis can not be sustained upon his own principles. The distance between Africa and the West India Islands, where most of the hurricanes originate, is from 2,500 to 3,000 miles. These gales are small when they commence, not ordinarily over one or two hundred miles in diameter, and often less. There are trades all the way over from Africa, and S. W. winds also, if they exist, as he supposes, in the West Indies. How can it happen that this lateral overflow should pass without effect, over 2,500 miles of S. W. wind and trade, and concentrating the overflow of a continent over one small and chosen spot of the West Indies, pitch down there, and there only, and crowd the S. W. wind into the trade below? This is too much for sensible men to believe.

What does Professor Dove mean by the term impulsion, as applied to the winds? How are they impelled? It is the fundamental idea of his calorific theory, that they are drawn by the suction caused by a vacuum, and the vacuum created by expansion and overflow above, in obedience to the law of gravity; that the S. E. trade is drawn to the great region of expansion, and the S. W. runs from it as an overflow. But if the S. W. is driven down into the plane and place of the surface-trades, how does it continue to be impelled, and why is it not then subject to the suction of the vacuum which draws the trade? Does that vacuum select its air, and so attract the trade, in preference to the depressed portion of the S. W. current, that the former runs around the latter to get to the vacuum, and the latter around the former to get away from it? And does the trade, when it has got around the S. W. current, instead of going to the vacuum, continue to gyrate, and the S. W. current, instead of pursuing its regular course, gyrate also about the trade, and both move off together, regardless of the vacuum of the great region of expansion, in a new direction to the N. W., in an independent, self-sustaining, cyclonic movement, increasing in power and extent, involving extended and increasing condensation, producing the most violent electrical phenomena, and thus continuing up, even to the Arctic circle? Yes, says Professor Dove. No, say all fact, all analogy, and his own principles.

7. His theory relative to the typhoons is unintelligible. If they originate near the lateral confines of the great region of atmospheric expansion, they originate in the region of the trade-winds, for the two are identical. How the direct pressure of the air from the trade-wind over the Pacific, in the more expanded air of the monsoon region, can occasion a typhoon upon any principles, passes my comprehension. If, as Lieutenant Maury supposes, the monsoons are reversed trades, then the trade-wind and monsoon region are identical. If the monsoons are found in the belt of rains, then, the trades, upon Professor Dove's principles, pass into the monsoon region by attraction or suction, without pressure. Either way the theory is undeserving of consideration.

A new theory has recently been started by Mr. Thomas Dobson, and, although it is (like all other efforts to get the upper strata down to produce condensation, or those below up, that they may be condensed), without foundation, his collection of facts is brief and interesting. I copy his article from the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Phil. Mag., for December, 1853. It adds to the collection of facts in relation to the connection between volcanic action and storms for the seventeenth century, made by Dr. Webster:

The following appear to be the main facts which are available as a basis for a theory which shall comprehend all the meteors in question:

1st. The eruption of a submarine volcano has produced water-spouts.

"During these bursts the most vivid flashes of lightning continually issued from the densest part of the volcano, and the volumes of smoke rolled off in large masses of fleecy clouds, gradually expanding themselves before the wind in a direction nearly horizontal, and drawing up a quantity of water-spouts."--(Captain Tilland's description of the upheaval of Sabrina Island in June, 1811, Phil. Trans.)

With this significant fact may be compared the following analogous ones:

"In the Aleutian Archipelago a new island was formed in 1795. It was first observed after a storm, at a point in the sea from which a column of smoke had been seen to rise."--(Lyell, Principles of Geology.)

"Among the Aleutian Islands a new volcanic island appeared in the midst of a storm, attended with flames and smoke. After the sea was calm, a boat was sent from Unalaska with twenty Russian hunters, who landed on this island on June 1st, 1814."--(Journal of Science, vol. vii.)

"On July 24th, 1848, a submarine eruption broke out between the mainland of Orkney and the island of Strousa. Amid thunder and lightning, a very dense jet black cloud was seen to rise from the sea, at a distance of five or six miles, which traveled toward the north-east. On passing over Strousa, the wind from a slight air became a hurricane, and a thick, well-defined belt of large hailstones was left on the island. The barometer fell two inches."--(Transactions Royal Society, Edinburg, vol. ix.)

2d. Hurricanes, whirlwinds, and hailstones accompany the paroxysms of volcanos.

"1730. A great volcanic eruption at Lancerote Island, and a storm, which was equally new and terrifying to the inhabitants, as they had never known one in the country before."--(Lyell, Principles of Geology, vol. ii.)

"1754. In the Philippine Islands a terrible volcanic eruption destroyed the town of Taal and several villages. Darkness, hurricanes, thunder, lightning, and earthquakes, alternated in frightful succession."--(Edinburgh Philosophical Journal.)

"In 1805, 1811, 1813, and 1830, during eruptions of Etna, caravans in the deserts of Africa perished by violent whirlwinds. In 1807, while Vesuvius was in eruption, a whirlwind destroyed a caravan."--(Rev. W. B. Clarke in Tasw. Journal.)

"1815, Java. A tremendous eruption of Tombow Mountain. Between nine and ten P.M., ashes began to fall, and soon after a violent whirlwind took up into the air the largest trees, men, horses, cattle, etc."--(Raffles' History of Java.)

"1817, Dec. Vesuvius in eruption. In the evening a hail storm, accompanied with red sand."--(Journal of Science, vol. v.)

"1820, Banda. A frightful volcanic eruption, and in the evening an earthquake and a violent hurricane."--(Annales de Chimie.)

"1822, Oct. Eruption of Vesuvius. Toward its close the volcanic thunder-storm produced an exceedingly violent and abundant fall of rain."--(Humboldt, Aspects of Nature.)

"1843, Jan. Etna in eruption. Violent hurricanes at Genoa, in the Bay of Biscay, and in Great Britain.

"1843, Feb. Destructive earthquakes in the West Indies, a volcanic eruption at Guadaloupe, followed by hurricanes in the Atlantic."

"1846, June 26. Volcano of White Island, New Zealand, in eruption. Heavy squalls of wind and hail; it blew as hard as in a typhoon."--(Commodore Hayes, R.N., in Naut. Mag., 1847.)

"1847, March 20. Volcanic eruption and earthquake in Java; and on the 21st of March, and 3d of April, violent hurricanes."--(Java Courant.)

"1851, Aug. 5. A frightful eruption of the long dormant volcano of the Pelee Mountain, Martinique. Aug. 17. Hurricane at St. Thomas, etc.; earthquake at Jamaica, etc.

"1852, April 14. Earthquake at Hawaii, and on the 15th a great volcanic eruption. On the 18th a gale of unusual violence lasted thirty-six hours, and did great damage."--(The Polynesian, April 22, 1852.)

3d. In volcanic regions, earthquakes and hurricanes often occur almost simultaneously, but in no certain order, and without any volcanic eruption being observed.

In 1712, 1722, 1815, and 1851, earthquakes and hurricanes occurred together at Jamaica; in 1762 at Carthagena; in 1780 at Barbadoes; in 1811 at Charleston; in 1847 at Tobago; in 1837 and 1848 at Antigua; in 1819, an awful storm at Montreal, rain of a dark inky color, and a slight earthquake. People conjectured that a volcano had broken out. In 1766 the great Martinique hurricane, a waterspout burst on Mount Pelee and overwhelmed the place. Same night, an earthquake.

1843, Oct. 30. Manilla.--Twenty four hours' rain and two heavy earthquakes. 10 P.M., a severe hurricane.

"1852, Sept. 16. Manilla--An earthquake destroyed a great part of the city; many vessels wrecked by a great hurricane in the adjacent seas, between the 18th and 26th of September."--(Singapore Times.)

"1731, Oct. Calcutta.--Furious hurricane and violent earthquake; 300,000 lives lost."

"1618, May 26. Bombay.--Hurricane and earthquakes; 2,000 lives lost."--(Madras Lit. Tran., 1837.)

"1800. Ongole, India, and in 1815, at Ceylon, a hurricane and earthquake shocks."--(Piddington.)

"1348. Cyprus.--An earthquake and a frightful hurricane."--(Hecker.)

"1819. Bagdad.--An earthquake and a storm--an event quite unprecedented.

"1820, Dec. Zante.--Great earthquake and hurricane, with manifestations of a submarine eruption."--(Edinburg Phil. Journal.)

"1831, Dec. Navigator's Islands.--Hurricane and earthquakes."--(Williams' Missionary Enterprise.)

"1848, Oct., Nov. New Zealand.--Succession of earthquake shocks, and several tempests.

"1836, Oct. At Valparaiso, a destructive tempest and severe earthquakes."--(Nautical Magazine, 1848.)

When an earthquake of excessive intensity occurs, as at Lisbon, in 1755, the volcanic craters, which act as the safety-valves of the regions in which they are placed, are supposed to be sealed up; and it is a remarkable and highly-suggestive fact, that no hurricane follows such an earthquake. The number of instances of the concurrence of ordinary earthquakes and hurricanes might easily be increased, but the preceding suffice to show the generality of their coincidence, both as to time and place.

4th. The breaking of water-spouts on mountains sometimes accompanies hurricanes.

In 1766, during the great Martinique hurricane, before cited.

"1826, Nov. At Teneriffe, enormous and most destructive water-spouts fell on the culminating tops of the mountains, and a furious cyclone raged around the island. The same occurred in 1812 and in 1837."--(Espy and Grey's Western Australia.)

"1829. Moray.--Floods and earthquakes, preceded by water-spouts and a tremendous storm."--(Sir T. D. Lander.)

"1826, June. Hurricanes, accompanied by water-spouts and fall of avalanches, in the White Mountains."--(Silliman's American Journal, vol. xv.)

5th. The fall of an avalanche sometimes produces a hurricane.

"1819, Dec. A part (360,000,000 cubic feet) of the glacier fell from the Weisshorn (9,000 feet). At the instant, when the snow and ice struck the inferior mass of the glacier, the pastor of the village of Randa, the sacristan, and some other persons, observed a light. A frightful hurricane immediately succeeded."--(Edinburg Philosophical Journal, 1820.)

6th. Water-spouts occur frequently near active volcanos.

This is well known with regard to the West Indies and the Mediterranean. The following notices refer to the Malay Archipelago and the Sandwich Islands:

"Water-spouts are often seen in the seas and straits adjacent to Singapore. In Oct., 1841, I saw six in action, attached to one cloud. In August, 1838, one passed over the harbor and town of Singapore, dismasting one ship, sinking another, and carrying off the corner of the roof of a house, in its passage landward."--(Journal of Indian Archipelago.)

"1809. An immense water-spout broke over the harbor of Honolulu. A few years before, one broke on the north side of the island (Oahu), washed away a number of houses, and drowned several inhabitants."--(Jarves' History of Sandwich Islands.)

7th. Cyclones begin in the immediate neighborhood of active volcanos.

The Mauritius cyclones begin near Java; the West Indian, near the volcanic series of the Caribbean Islands; those of the Bay of Bengal, near the volcanic islands, on its eastern shores; the typhoons of the China Sea, near the Philippine Islands, etc.

8th. Within the tropics, cyclones move toward the west; and, in middle latitudes, cyclones and water-spouts move toward the N. E., in the northern hemisphere, and toward the S. E. in the southern hemisphere.

9th. In the northern hemisphere, cyclones rotate in a horizontal plane, in the order N. W., S. E.; and in the southern hemisphere, in the order N. E., S. W.

By applying the principles of electro-dynamics to the electricity of the atmosphere, I shall endeavor to connect and explain the preceding well-defined facts. The continuous observations of Quetelet, on the electricity of the atmosphere, from 1844 to 1849 (Literary Journal, February, 1850), show that it is always positive, and increases as the temperature diminishes. It therefore increases rapidly with the height above the earth's surface. We may, consequently, regard the upper and colder regions of the atmosphere as an immense reservoir of electric fluid enveloping the earth, which is insulated by the intermediate spherical shell formed by the lower and denser atmosphere. Now, whenever a vertical column of this atmosphere is suddenly displaced, the surrounding aqueous vapor will be immediately condensed and aggregated, and the cold rarefied air and moisture will form a vertical conductor for the descent of the electrical fluid. This descent will take place down a spiral, gyrating in the order N. W., S. E., in the northern hemisphere, since the electric current is under the same influence as that of the south pole of a magnet; and in the order N. E., S. W., in the southern hemisphere. The air exterior to the conducting cylinder will partake of the violent revolving motion, and a tornado or cyclone will be produced.

Upon the foregoing facts I shall comment in another place.

Three theories have been advanced by meteorologists of this country, two of which profess to explain all the phenomena of the weather. Professor Espy attributed the production of storms and rain to an ascending column of air, rarefied by heat, and the rarefaction increased by the latent heat of vapor given out during condensation, and an inward tendency of the air, from all directions, toward the ascending vortex, constituting the prevailing winds. Thus, Professor Espy conceived, and to some extent proved, that the wind blew inward, from all sides, toward the center of a storm, either as a circle, or having a long central line, and he conceived that it ascended in the middle, and spread out above; and that clouds, rain, hail, and snow, were formed by condensation consequent upon the expansion and cooling of the atmosphere, as it attained an increased elevation.

This ascent was not, in fact, proved by Professor Espy, has not been found by others, and is not discoverable, according to my observations. The theory was ingenious, founded on the theory of Dalton, that the vapor was maintained in the atmosphere by reason of a large quantity of latent heat, which was given out when condensation took place. This theory is also unsound. No such elevation of temperature is found in clouds or fogs when they form near the earth, however dense. Thus the two principal elements of Professor Espy's theory are found to be untrue, and the theory untenable. But it was sustained with great ability and research, and the distinguished theorist deserves much for the discovery and record of important facts in relation to the weather. Aside from its theoretical views, his book contains a great mass of valuable information, and will well repay the cost of purchase and perusal.

Another theory, by Mr. Bassnett, is of recent date, founded on the influence of the moon, and the supposed creation of vortices in the ether above, whose influence extends to the earth, producing storms and other phenomena. No one can peruse his book without conceding to him great ability and scientific attainment; and if his theory was true, the periods of fair and foul weather could be calculated with great mathematical certainty. But it contains inherent and insuperable objections. I will only add that all herein before contained is in direct opposition to it.

Mr. W. C. Redfield, of New York, as early as 1831, first advanced in this country the theory of gyration in storms, and investigated their lines of progress on our coast and continent. His theory is limited in its character, and does not profess, except indirectly, to explain all, or indeed any, of the other phenomena of the weather. As far as it goes, however, it is generally received in this country and Europe, and has been adopted by Reed, Piddington, and others, who have written on the law of storms. The position of Mr. Redfield is honorable to himself and his country. Science and navigation are much indebted to him for his industry in the collection of facts. Nevertheless, his theory is not in accordance with my observation, and I deem it unsound. Although expressed disbelief of the theory has been characterized as an "attack" upon its author, I propose, with that respect which is due to him, but with that freedom and independence which a search for truth warrants, to examine it with some particularity. It is a part of the subject, and I can not avoid it.

When the theory was first announced, I adopted it as probably true; and being then engaged in a different profession, which took me much into the open air by night and day, I watched with renewed care the clouds and currents for evidence to confirm it. I discovered none; on the contrary, I found much, very much, absolutely and utterly inconsistent with its truth. The substance only of these observations will be adduced.

Mr. Redfield admits that the progression of our storms in the vicinity of New York, is from some point between S. S. W. and W. S. W., to some point between N. N. E. and E. N. E. According to my observation, except perhaps in occasional autumnal gales, they are not often, if ever, from S. of S. W., and the great majority of them, including, I believe, all N. E. storms, are between S. W. and W. S. W. Now, the card of Mr. Redfield, moving over any place from any point between S. W. and W. S. W., calls for a S. E. wind at its axis, an E. wind at its north front, and a S. wind at its south front, and does not call for a N. E. wind on its front at all, except at the north extreme, where it could not continue for any considerable period.

In relation to this, I observe, 1st. About one-half of our N. E. storms, including some of the most severe ones, not only set in N. E., but continue in that quarter without veering at all, during the entire period that the storm cloud is over us; usually for twenty-four hours; not unfrequently for forty-eight hours, sometimes for seventy-two or more hours. This every one can observe for himself, and it can not, of course, be reconciled with his theory.

2d. N. E. storms, whether they set in from that quarter in the commencement, or veer to it afterward, when they do "change" round, more frequently veer by the S. to the S. W. in clearing off, than back through the N. into the N. W. The former, in accordance with his theory, they can not do, as the reader can see by passing the left side of the card over his place of residence on the map from S. W. to N. E.

3d. N. E. storms often pass off without hauling by S. or backing by N., and with or without a clearing off shower, the wind shifting and coming out suddenly at S. W. This they could not do in accordance with his theory, as slipping the card will show.

4th. From June to February it is exceedingly uncommon for a N. E. storm to back into the N. W. They do so more frequently from February to May, especially about the time of the vernal equinox and after; and then, because the focus of precipitation and storm intensity of the extra tropical zone of rains is S. of 42 deg. east of the Alleghanies. His theory requires them to back by N. into N. W. in all cases, when they set in N. E.

5th. When they do back from the N. E. into the N. W., it rarely indeed continues to storm after the wind leaves the point of N. E. by N., and generally, if it does continue stormy, the wind is light, and not a gale, how violent soever the gale from the eastward may have been. Usually, by the time the wind gets N. W., it has cleared off. This, Mr. Redfield, as we shall see, evades by embracing the N. W. fair wind as a part of the same gale. According to my observation, therefore, a very large proportion of the N. E. storms, and they are a majority of the most violent ones of our climate east of the Alleghanies, do not commence, continue, or veer in accordance with his theory, but the reverse; and so long as this is so, I can not receive his theory as true.

6th. S. E. storms do not always, or indeed often, conform to the requirements of his card. When they set in violently at S. E., and continue so for hours without veering, the axis of the storm should be over us, and the wind should change suddenly to N. W. This did not occur in the storm of Sept. 3, 1821, nor does it often, if ever, occur in the summer or early gales of the autumnal months. In the later storms of autumn, and as often in those which are very gentle as any, and in the winter months when S. E. gales are rare, it does sometimes so change after the storm cloud has passed. But in the winter months, as in the storm investigated by Professor Loomis, the storms are frequently long from S. E. to N. W., and the S. E. wind blows nearly in coincidence with its long axis, for a thousand or fifteen hundred miles, till the barometric minimum is passed, and the inducing and attracting force of this part of the storm cloud is spent, and then the N. W. wind follows; sometimes blowing in under the storm cloud, turning the rain to snow; but oftener following the storm within a few hours, or the next day. The storm of Professor Loomis, when over Texas, was not probably more than four or five hundred miles in length. As it curved more, and passed north and east, it extended laterally, its center traveling with most rapidity, and when it reached the eastern coast was about fifteen hundred miles long, and not more than six hundred broad. Along the eastern part of that storm, except when by its more rapid progress the front projected much further eastward over New England than its previously existing line, the S. E. winds blew. When it bulged out, so to speak, by reason of the increased progress of the center, the wind veered to the N. E. The center of the storm passed near St. Louis and south of Quebec, as the fall of rain, the bulging of the rapidly-moving center, and the line of subsequent cold, attest. It is utterly impossible for any unbiased mind to look at the description of that storm, and attribute to it a rotary character. With all the data before him, Mr. Redfield himself has not attempted it directly.

The September storm of 1821 was more violent in character than any which have since occurred. My recollection of it is as distinct as if it occurred yesterday. Peculiar circumstances, not important in this connection, fixed my attention upon the weather during that day and night. There were cirro-stratus clouds passing all day, from about S. W. to N. E., thickening toward night with fresh S. S. W. wind and flocculent scud, such as I have since seen at the setting-in of S. E. autumnal gales. In the evening the wind (in the immediate neighborhood of Hartford, Ct.), veered to S. E., the cloud floated low, it became very dark, and the wind blew a most violent gale. The trees were falling about the house where I then resided, the windows were burst in, and I was up and observant. When the cloud passed off to the east, it was suddenly light, and almost calm. The western edge of the storm cloud was as perpendicular as a steep mountain side, and was enormously elevated, and very black. I have sometimes seen the western side of a summer thunder cloud, which had drawn a violent gust along beneath it, as elevated and perpendicular, but never a storm cloud. No cloud of that depth, or intensity as exhibited by its peculiar blackness, ever floated or will float so near the earth, without inducing a devastating current beneath. After it had passed the ridges east of the Connecticut valley, its top could be seen for a long and unusual period over the elevated ranges.

Now that storm was but an intense portion of an extensive stratus-rain cloud. Such portions frequently exist, and Mr. Redfield admits the fact. Another like portion, in the same storm, passed over Norfolk, Virginia, and the adjacent section, where the wind was N. E., and veered round by N. W. to S. W. Baltimore, and some vessels at sea, were between the two intense portions of the storm, and were not affected by either. Its northern limit was bounded by a line, drawn from some point not far north of Trenton, New Jersey, north-eastward, and north of Worcester, Massachusetts. I was about forty miles south of its northern limit, and north of its center. During that day, and the next, there was wind from S. W. to S. E., inclusive, including the gale, and from no other quarter. It did not at any time veer to the W. or N. W. After the passage of the storm-cloud, the wind was very light. When this intense portion of the storm passed over the valley of the Connecticut, its longest axis was from S. S. E. to N. N. W., and the wind was S. E. the whole length of it. In its passage from the longitude of Trenton to Boston, there was N. W. wind at one point, and but one, and that was in the iron region, at the N. W. corner of Connecticut, at the northern limit of the intense cloud, and owing, doubtless, to some local cause. The direction of the wind in that storm was in accordance with what is generally true of our storms. The wind on the front of the storm depends upon its shape. If the storm is long in proportion to its width (and no other violent autumnal or winter storm has been investigated, to my knowledge), the wind blows axially, or obliquely, on its front. Thus, if long from S. E. to N. W., the wind on its front will blow from the S. E. So, if the storm is long from S. W. to N. E., and has a south-eastern lateral extension, with an easterly progression, the wind will blow axially in the center, and obliquely at the edges. Instances might be multiplied, but I refer to one of recent date and striking character. All of us remember the drought of 1854. It ended in drenching rain on the 9th of September. This rain fell from a belt, half showery and half stormy in character, which had a S. E. lateral extension.

The evening of the previous day there was some lightning visible at the north, and the usual S. S. W. afternoon wind continued fresh after nightfall. The next day we had a brisk wind from the same quarter, and, after noon, the clouds appeared to pile up in the far north, seeming very elevated. They continued to do so, extending southerly during the afternoon, with a high wind from S. S. W., the cumulus clouds moving E. N. E. At 5 P.M., gentlemen who left New York at 3 P.M., reported that a dispatch had been received from Albany, dated 1 P.M., stating that it was raining very heavily there. About 7 P.M., the belt reached us, and it rained heavily from that time till morning. Not far from 8 P.M., and during the heaviest rain, the wind shifted from the S. S. W. to N. E., and blew fresh and cold from that quarter during the night, and till the belt had passed south, and then from N. E. by N., cool, with heavy scud, during the forenoon, veering gradually to the N. N. E., and dying away. After the rain ceased, the northern edge of the belt was distinctly visible in the S. and S. E., its stratus-cloud moving E. N. E., and its scud to the westward.

The front of that storm did not pass over us. It was long and narrow. The wind blew somewhat obliquely inward, along its southern border, to the eastward, and, in like manner, to the westward, on its northern border, but from the N. E. axially along its central portions.

In the last instance, the wind changed from S. W. to N. E. This, too, is impossible, according to Mr. Redfield's theory. Similar instances, in summer, and early autumn, are not uncommon. But I shall recur to this in connection with the different classes of storms.

Again, the manner in which these S. E. winds co-exist with the N. E., and become the prevailing wind, toward the close of the storm, is instructive, and inconsistent with the theory of Mr. Redfield. In the West Indies, the first effect of the storm is to increase the N. E. trade; the wind then becomes baffling, but settles in the N. W. or N. N. W., in direct opposition to the admitted progress of the storm. At this point, or at S. W., it blows with most force. Sometimes it veers gradually, and sometimes falls calm, and comes out from the S. W., blowing violently. It ends by veering to the S. E., following gently the course of the storm. Thus, Mr. Edwards, in the third volume of his History of Jamaica, as herein before cited, "all hurricanes begin from the north, veer back to W. N. W., W., and S. S. W., and when they get round to S. E. the foul weather breaks up."

A short, sudden gale, resembling those of our summer thunder-showers, is sometimes met with from the S. E.; but the violent hurricanes of any considerable continuance are, in almost every case, as just stated.

Now, there is, in our latitudes, an obvious law on the subject, and it is this:--If the storm is not disproportionately long, northerly and southerly, there is a general tendency to induce and attract a surface current, in opposition to the course of the storm on its front, and especially its north front. At the same time, there is a tendency to induce a lateral current on its side, particularly the southerly side, and sometimes its south front: that the latter current is, in the first part of the storm, above the former; in the middle and latter part, it becomes the prevailing current at the surface, and the wind changes accordingly, with or without a calm--that this lateral change sometimes takes place on either side, but usually occurs on the side where the water is warmest, or there is, for other and local reasons, a greater susceptibility in the atmosphere to inductive and attractive influence. Thus, our N. E. storms very frequently have a southerly current also, drawn from the ocean, south of us, which forms the middle current, and, in the middle and latter part of it, becomes the prevailing one. I have seen more than a hundred such instances, clearly and distinctly marked. Since I have been writing this chapter, January 29th, 1855, such an instance has occurred. On Sunday, the 28th, the cirro-stratus were all day passing from the S. W. to N. E., and gradually thickening with light air from the E. N. E., in the afternoon. During the evening the wind set in violently from the N. E., with a deluging rain. During the night, and after a brief calm, it changed suddenly to the southward, and blew in like manner. This morning the storm was gone, and with it, six inches of hard, frozen icy snow; the trade was clear, with the exception of here and there a broken, melting piece of stratus, but scud were still running from the southward, and the wind has been from the south, veering to S. W., all day, with sunshine. As I have before remarked, this middle current is always present, in this locality, in stratus storms, when there is a heavy fall of rain or snow, although, when the latter happens, the middle current is sometimes from the northward; if it be from the southward, it turns the snow first into very large flakes, and then to rain in our part of the storm.

Doubtless, the same thing occurs every where. In the West Indies, and especially over the Leeward Islands, the middle current is most commonly from the stream of warm water which runs off to the westward into the Caribbean Sea; as the S. W. moonsoon is from the same current below the Cape de Verdes. The S. W. winds, which come from those south polar waters, in the West Indies, appear to be the most violent. But it may be on either or both sides.

The hurricane cloud of the West Indies moves confessedly N. W. in most instances, and undoubtedly it does in all. There is an immutable law that requires it. The seeming exceptions are not such; they are but instances imperfectly investigated. Now, a circular storm moving N. W. can set in N. W. only on the left front, and can not change to S. W. on that side of the axis. Nor can the wind blow at the axis from N. W. at all. It should be N. E. in first half, and S. W. in last half. Strange as it may seem, the axis of a West India hurricane in conformity with Mr. Redfield's theory, and a N. W. progression, has never been found, with perhaps a single exception, in any one of which I have seen a description. On the west coast of Europe, the gale is commonly from the Atlantic, either following under the storm from the S. W., or blowing in diagonally from the W. or N. W.; the N. E. wind of western Europe being a cold, dry wind, which there is reason to believe has been around the Siberian pole and is returning, as the cold northerly winds of the North Pacific have around the North American magnetic pole. "If the N. E. winds always prevailed," says Kaemtz, speaking of Berlin, "even at a considerable height it would never rain." This was based on an observation of showers, and not fully reliable. But the dry and cool character of the N. E. wind of western Europe is unquestionable. The S. E. wind is also a storm wind, but owing to the character of the surface from which it is attracted, it is not as violent as the westerly winds are.

Such, too, is the general course and character of the side wind in the southern hemisphere. There gales are less frequent, the magnetic intensity is less, the counter-trades are less; it is not in "the order of Providence" that as much rain shall fall there. Nevertheless, gales occur, although rarely, if ever, with equal violence. About New Holland, where storms are pursuing a S. E. course, they have the wind N. E., corresponding to our S. E., veering from thence, by the north, to the westward, clearing off from S. W., with a rising barometer, as ours do from N. W.

In the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean, and the Arabian Sea, there is more irregularity.

But the law of progress and lateral winds can be distinctly traced as present and prevailing, notwithstanding the irregularities. Our limits do not permit an analysis. In the celebrated case of the Charles Heddle, there was much evidence to show that she was driven across the front of the storm by one lateral wind, and back by another. (Diagram of Colonel Reid, p. 206.)

The waters of the Indian Ocean are hot and confined. Storms there are often composed of detached masses, move slower--sometimes not more than three or four miles an hour--and they curve over the ocean, where it is hotter than in any similar latitude. Yet, notwithstanding all peculiarities and irregularities, the law we have been considering is probably the prevailing law there.

No man knows better the existence of these different currents than Mr. Redfield. Doubtless it has escaped his attention that the upper of two, after the passage of a considerable proportion of the storm, becomes the lower, and causes a seeming change of the same wind.

In a series of elaborate articles, substantially reviewing the whole subject, published in the American Journal of Science, for 1846, he says:

"In nearly all great storms which are accompanied with rain, there appear two distinct classes of clouds, one of which, comprising the storm scuds in the active portion of the gale, has already been noticed. Above this is an extended stratum of stratus cloud, which is found moving with the general or local current of the lower atmosphere which overlies the storm. It covers not only the area of rain, but often extends greatly beyond this limit, over a part of the dry portion of the storm, partly in a broken or detached state. This stratus cloud is often concealed from view by the nimbus, and scud clouds in the rainy portion of the storm, but by careful observations, may be sufficiently noticed to determine the general uniformity of its specific course, and, approximately, its general elevation.

"The more usual course of this extended cloud stratum, in the United States, is from some point in the horizon between S. S. W. and W. S. W. Its course and velocity do not appear influenced in any perceptible degree by the activity or direction of the storm-wind which prevails beneath it. On the posterior or dry side of the gale, it often disappears before the arrival of the newly condensed cumuli and cumulo-stratus which not unfrequently float in the colder winds, on this side of the gale."

"The general height of the great stratus cloud which covers a storm, in those parts of the United States which are near the Atlantic, can not differ greatly from one mile; and perhaps is oftener below than above this elevation. This estimate, which is founded on much observation and comparison, appears to comprise, at the least, the limit or thickness of the proper storm-wind, which constitutes the revolving gale.

"It is not supposed, however, that this disk-like stratum of revolving wind is of equal height or thickness throughout its extent, nor that it always reaches near to the main canopy of stratus cloud. It is probably higher in the more central portions of the gale than near its borders, in the low latitudes, than in the higher, and may thin out entirely at the extremes, except in those directions where it coincides with an ordinary current. Moreover, in large portions of its area, there may be, and often is, more than one storm-wind overlying another, and severally pertaining to contiguous storms. In the present case, we see, from the observations of Professor Snell and Mr. Herrick, at Amherst, Massachusetts, and at Hamden, Maine (115 and 135 b.), that the true storm wind, at those places, was super-imposed on another wind; and various facts and observations may be adduced to show that brisk winds, of great horizontal extent, are often limited, vertically to a very thin sheet or stratum."

Much of the foregoing is graphically described, and unquestionably true. But it may well be asked how he, or others, distinguish which of two or more currents (for there are frequently three, and sometimes four visible), are the true currents of the storm, and which interlopers from another storm? Is the true one always the upper one, and why? If the upper one, why is the interloper at the surface noted and quoted to prove what a storm is? How does he know what proportions of the winds he has recorded to show the revolving motion of gales, were the true storm winds of the particular storm? or, that every one of them was not an interloping wind on which the true storm wind was superimposed?

These inquiries are pertinent, for obviously, unless some rule for distinguishing between the currents is given, and there be evidence of direct observation to show that the surface wind, whose direction is noted, is the true wind of the storm, and that the latter is not superimposed, no reliance can be placed upon logs, or newspaper accounts, or registers. There is another element besides direction, viz.: superimposition, a determination of which is essential to truth. It will be difficult for Mr. Redfield to say that a determination of that element has been made, with certainty, in a single storm he has investigated; and in relation to the convergence of storms, and blending, and superimposition of their winds, I think he is mistaken.

Mr. Redfield is right in saying (American Journal of Science, vol. ii., new series, p. 321) that "too much reliance may be placed upon mere observations of the surface winds in meteorological inquiries," and yet they only have thus far been regarded, and he has proved gyration in no other way. I have frequently, with a vane in sight, asked intelligent men how the wind was, and been amused and instructed by their inability to state it correctly. Mr. Redfield, in his inquiries, often found two reports of the weather at the same time, from the same place, materially different; and I have known, from my own observation, newspapers and meteorological registers to be several points out of the way; and this, because the vanes are influenced by local elevations, and change several points, and very often; because few know the exact points of the compass in their own localities, and because entire accuracy has not been deemed essential. For these reasons, newspaper and telegraphic reports are not always reliable; and therefore, and because, also, storm-winds are easterly and fair winds westerly, and the former veer from east around to west, on one or both sides in many cases, there are few storms which can not be represented as whirlwinds, by a proper selection of reports, a corresponding location of the center, and an extension of the lines of supposed gyration, so as to include the preceding winds, the actual winds of the storm, and the lateral, and succeeding fair weather ones.

But, again, Mr. Redfield is right in saying there is, in such cases, "an extended stratum of stratus cloud," and it is always present. But why does he say this covers the storm? Is it distinct from it, and if so, what is it doing there? What power placed it there, and for what purpose? Has this extended stratum of cloud, which forms the canopy of a vast chamber--five hundred to one thousand miles in diameter, and less than two miles in vertical depth, while the earth forms the floor--any agency in producing the whirl that is supposed to be going on within it, and if so, what? Has the earth any agency, and if so, what? If neither the ceiling nor floor of the chamber have any agency in producing it, what does? Are we to consider the storm-scud as possessing the power, and as waltzing around the aerial chamber, carrying the air with them in a hurricane-dance of devastation? What, in short, is the power, and how is it exerted?

To these questions, Mr. Redfield's essays furnish no comprehensive answer. There is an intimation that the cause of storms will be, at some future day, developed. One attempt, and but one, has thus far been made, and that I quote entire:

"We have seen that the two Cuba storms, as well as the Mexican northers, have appeared to come from the contiguous border of the Pacific Ocean.

"Now, are there any peculiarities in the winds and aerial currents of those regions, which may serve to induce or support a leftwise rotation in extensive portions of the lower atmosphere, while moving on, or near the earth's surface? I apprehend there are such peculiarities, which have an extensive, constant, and powerful influence. First, we find on the eastern portion of the Pacific, from upper California to near the Bay of Panama, an almost constant prevalence of north-westerly winds at the earth's surface. Next, we have an equally constant wind from the southern and south-western quarter, which, having swept the western coast of South America, extends across the equator to the vicinity of Panama, thus meeting, and commonly over-sliding the above-mentioned westerly winds, and tending to a deflection or rotation of the same, from right to left. As this influence may thus become extended to the Caribbean or Honduras Sea, we have, next, the upper or S. E. trade of this sea, which is here frequently a surface-wind, and must tend to aid and quicken the gyrative movement, ascribed to the two previous winds; and lastly we have the N. E. or lower trade, from the tropic, which, coinciding with the northern front of the gyration, serves still further to promote the revolving movement which may thus result from the partial coalescence of these great winds of Central America, and the contiguous seas.

"Thus, while a great storm is, in part, on the Pacific Ocean, its N. E. wind may be felt in great force on that side of the continent, through the great gorges or depressions near the bays of Papagayo or Tehuantepec, as noticed by Humboldt, Captain Basil Hall, and others, the elevations which there separate the two seas being but inconsiderable; and, when the gyration is once perfected, the whole mass will gradually assume the movement of the predominant current, which is generally the higher one, and will move off with it, integrally, as we see in the cases of the vortices, which are successively found in particular portions of a stream, where subject to disturbing influences."

The analogy between this and the theory of Professor Dove, cited above, and prior, in point of time, is obvious. They are substantially alike in principle, with different locations. They differ also in this, Professor Dove appears to think something more than over-sliding necessary, and assigns the duty of crowding the upper current down in to the lower, to make an encounter, to a lateral overflow from Africa. Mr. Redfield seems to think there may be a tendency to deflection when they "over-slide" each other. They are both closet hypotheses, the poetry of meteorology, with something more than poetical license as to facts.

In the first place, no such concurring winds exist in the same locality at the same time. When the inter-tropical belt of rains is over Central America and Southern Mexico, a S. W. monsoon blows in under it, but it usurps the place of all other surface winds; and, when the belt is absent, that portion of the eastern Pacific is most remarkably calm, or is covered by the N. E. trades. Secondly, the trade-winds every where pursue their appointed course without "tendency to deflection" by the meeting, or "over-sliding," or "breaking in," or "encounter," of other winds. The great laws of circulation do not admit of any such confusion. And, lastly, no storm ever came over the eastern United States from that quarter. The unchangeable laws of atmospheric circulation forbid it. Recent observations also have shown that the storms on the west coast of Central America, and the eastern Pacific, pursue a N. W. course, precisely as in the West Indies, and every where over the surface-trades of the northern hemisphere. Indeed Mr. Redfield himself has recently investigated several of them, and admits their course to be north-westerly. (See American Journal of Science, new series, vol. xviii. p. 181.)

But, suppose the co-existence of the winds and the course of the storms admitted as claimed, let us seek for clearer views. What do these gentlemen mean? Do they intend to have us believe the air has inherent moving power, and that the "tendency" of which they speak is an attribute of the winds, and that when they thus meet, and "come into each other," "encounter," or "over-slide," and become acquainted, they wheel into a waltz, and move off northward, "integrally," with unceasing circular movement, even until they arrive at the Arctic circle? Or is it a mere mechanical effect of meeting, "coming into each other," or "over-sliding?" If the latter, why a tendency to rotation from right to left? The trade-winds, at least, are continuous, unbroken sheets, and not disconnected portions which meet and blow past each other, and there is no warrant for placing them side and side, and attributing to them any such mechanical effect, and as little respecting the other winds. Outside of the fanciful hypothesis, there are no facts to show such a tendency one way rather than the other; and, in accordance with the known facts regarding stratification of the currents of air, no such "tendency" can exist.

But what power impels the winds, which thus meet at these points? If they be impelled, is it consistent with the action of this power that the winds it has created and controls, should thus assume an opposite "tendency," and whirl away to the north-eastward, regardless of the power that originated and controls them? What must this "tendency" be, which thus occasionally not only diverts the winds from the usually regular course given them by their originating power, but increases their action, from gentle, ordinary winds, to hurricanes? Nay, which gives them a new, resistless gyratory and electric energy, increasing as the new, independent, supposed cyclonic organization moves off, "integrally," away from "the home of its many fathers," on a devastating journey towards the north pole?

And, further, if all this were true as to the West Indies and Central America, what is to be said of the billions of other storms, originating on a thousand other portions of the earth's surface, and how are they to be accounted for, inasmuch as such other "meetings," "coming into each other," and "over-sliding," and "tendency to deflection," is not assumed to exist?

These questions cannot be satisfactorily answered. The distinguished theorists are mistaken. The stratus-cloud does not over-lie or cover the storm. IT IS THE STORM. The winds beneath, whether surface or superimposed, are but its incidents, due to its static induction and attraction. Their direction depends on the shape of the storm cloud, and its course of progression, and the susceptibility of the surface atmosphere in this direction or that, to its inductive and attractive influence. Their force to its depth, its contiguity to the earth, and the intensity of its action; and the scud, are but patches of condensation, occasioned by the same inductive action which affects and attracts the surface current in which they form.

Another objection to Mr. Redfield's theory of gyration is based upon the fact that in order to constitute his storm, to get the gyration, he has to include, at least, an equal amount, generally a great deal more, of fair weather. The N. W. wind, the "posterior, or dry side of the gale," as he calls it (in the foregoing extract), is a fair weather wind. It is necessary, however, to complete the supposed circle, and it is pressed into the service. The practical answer given to the question, "what are storms?" is, they are cyclones, part storm, so called, and part fair weather; that is, the stratus-cloud, the scud, the easterly wind, and rain or snow of day before yesterday, were the wet side, or front part of the storm, and the sunshine, clear sky, and N. W. wind of yesterday, to-day, and, perhaps, to-morrow, are the posterior or dry side. When a storm clears off from the N. W. it is not over, it is, perhaps, just begun; and, inasmuch as it storms again, very soon after the wind changes back from the N. W. to the southward, in winter, our weather then is pretty much all storms.

The statement of this claim seems so absurd that it may appear like injustice to make it. But gyration can not be made out without it, and it is evident in the extract quoted above; in the claim that the winter northers of the Mexican Gulf are parts of passing storms; and clearly and unequivocally advanced as a distinct proposition, as follows:

"1. The body of the gale usually comprises an area of rain or foul weather, together with another, and, perhaps equal, or greater, area of fair or bright weather." (Am. Jour. of Science, vol. xlii. p. 114.)

Now, in the first place, we must distinguish between a storm and fair weather, before we can tell what the former is, and it is difficult to assent to a theory which explains what a S. E. storm of twelve hours' continuance is, by including two or three days of succeeding N. W. fair weather wind, as a part of it. There is no proportionate relation as to time, nor any relation as to qualities, or the attending conditions of the atmosphere, nor any conceivable connection, except the hypothetical one of gyration, between the two winds.

And, in the second place, it is true, and Mr. Redfield is well aware of the fact, that winds often blow for many days from the N. E., S. W., or N. W., without any preceding or succeeding winds to which they have any discoverable relation. If, therefore, truth would justify Mr. Redfield in including the fair weather wind, a difficulty would remain which his theory does not cover or explain.

No American, except Mr. Redfield, has been able to discover satisfactory evidence of the gyration of storms, by actual careful observation, or a careful unbiased collation of the observation of others. Professor Coffin is reported to have read to the Scientific Association, at their Buffalo meeting, a paper, confirmatory, in part, but I have not been able to see it. The tracks of tornados have been searched as with candles. When they have been narrow, from forty to eighty rods, their action has been substantially similar, and, although, as we have herein before stated, some irregularities have been found which were consistent with gyration--for irregularities attend the violent action of all forces, and particularly the motion of electricity through the atmosphere, as every one who has seen the zig-zag course of a flash of lightning knows--yet the evidence of two lateral inward currents, or lines of force, has predominated over all others. In all cases, where the path is narrow, those lateral currents are the actors; they constitute the tornado; their irregularities of action produce the exceptions; but the exceptions are neither numerous nor uniform, and do not prove either the theory of Mr. Espy or that of Mr. Redfield. The action is not that of moving air, merely, but of a power exceeding in force that of powder, which nothing but electricity or magnetism can exert. As the path widens, the wind becomes more like the straight-line gust which follows beneath the ordinary severe thunder-showers. His theory finds no substantial confirmation or support in the path of the tornado.

Several storms were investigated by Professor Espy, some of them the same which Mr. Redfield had attempted to show were of a rotary character; one or two by the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia; one by Professor Loomis, already alluded to; and recently, two by Lieutenant Porter, from logs returned to the National Observatory. None of these investigations confirm the theory of Mr. Redfield. Indeed, Mr. Redfield himself has found it necessary to resort to suppositions of modifying causes to explain the evident inconsistencies. It is assumed that the axis, or center, oscillates, and describes a series of circles; and thus, one class of difficulties is avoided. Again, it is assumed that simultaneous storms converge and blend upon the same field, and another class of difficulties are surmounted. And, again, inasmuch as it is notorious that violent gales are rarely if ever felt with equal violence around the area of a circle, but from one or two points only, it is assumed, that the storm winds ascend, superimpose, and descend again, when they return to the place of their first violent action, etc. The simple truth requires no such resort to modifying hypothesis.

Still, another objection is, that the changes in the barometer, which occur before, during, and after storms, do not sustain the claims of Mr. Redfield or the requirements of his theory.

The barometer sometimes rises before storms. It generally commences falling about the time, or soon after the storm sets in, continues to fall during its progress, and rises again, sooner or later, afterward. This is the general rule.

On this subject Mr. Redfield's claim is this:

"EFFECT OF THE GALE'S ROTATION ON THE BAROMETER.--The extraordinary fall of the mercury in the barometer, which takes place in gales or tempests, has attracted attention since the earliest use of this instrument by meteorologists. But I am not aware that the principal cause of this depression had ever been pointed out, previously to my first publication in this journal, in April, 1831, when I took the occasion to notice this result as being obviously due to the centrifugal force of the revolving motion found in the body of the storm.

"Since that period, inquiries have been continued by meteorologists in regard to the periodical and other fluctuations of the barometer, and the relations of these fluctuations to temperature and aqueous vapor. But these incidental causes of variation, in the atmospheric pressure, prove to be of minor influence, and we are left to the sufficient and only satisfactory solution of this marked phenomenon which is found in the centrifugal force of rotation."

The average pressure of the atmosphere, at the surface of the ocean, or in the interior of the country, allowing for elevation, is about equal to the weight of a column of quicksilver, thirty inches in height; hence the barometer is said to stand at about thirty inches at the level of the sea.

This is sufficiently accurate for the northern hemisphere, north of the N. E. trades; but the average is somewhat lower in the trades and in the southern hemisphere. Thus, the average of sixteen months, during which the Grinnell expedition was absent, was 30.08/100.

From a large number of logs examined by Lieutenant Maury, the mean elevation in the N. E. trades of the Atlantic was 29.97/100; the S. E. trades of the Atlantic, 29.93/100; off Cape Horn, 29.23/100; S. E. trades of the Pacific, 30.05/100; N. E. trades of the Pacific, 29.96/100. The height of the barometer off Cape Horn is not a fair index of the general elevation of the southern hemisphere, inasmuch as it stands lower there than at the coast of Patagonia and Chili, or at most, if not all, other stations in that hemisphere.

As the barometer is constantly oscillating up and down (irrespective of its diurnal oscillation), it has no known fair weather standard. The point of 30 inches is taken only as it is a mean. I have known it to commence storming when the barometer was at 30.70, and not to fall before it cleared off, below 30.30. And I have known it to be below 30 for several days consecutively, with fair weather. In our climate there is no reliable fair weather standard for the barometer. It falls below 30 without storming; it rises far above, and storms without falling below. No reliance can be placed upon its elevation, except by comparison; but of that hereafter.

The general rule, nevertheless, is, that it falls more or less during storms, whatever its height, and rises sooner or later, more or less, after they clear off.

The difference between its highest and lowest points is called its range. The greatest range observed, and recorded, is about 3 inches--from about 28 to 31--but this range is rare. The range, in the trade-wind region, is comparatively small; in this country it is greater than in Europe; and, generally, the range will be found greatest where the volume of counter-trade, and magnetic intensity, and the corresponding amount of precipitation, and extremes of heat and cold are greatest. One of the greatest ranges during one storm, or two successive portions of a storm, in this country, which I have seen recorded, occurred at Boston, in February, 1842. It was as follows--counting the hours as 24, and from midnight:

Feb. 15..10h..30.36. " 16..13h..28.47 fall of 1.89 in 27 hours. " 17..19h..30.39 rise of 1.92 in 30 hours. " 18.. 2h..30.39 stationary 5 hours. " 19.. 2h..29.46 fall of 0.93 in 24 hours. " 20.. 2h..30.43 rise of 0.97 in 24 hours. Amount of oscillation, 5.71 in 4 days, 11 hours.

These ranges were owing to the alternation of S. E. storms, and N. W. winds.

Taking the first range as a basis, and allowing the height of the atmosphere to be 1,100 feet for the first inch, we have nearly 2,000 feet displaced during one day, if we look for the displacement near the earth, or some 30 or 35 miles, if we soar aloft in the upper regions to look for the lateral overflow of Professor Dove, and about the same quantity restored the next. This brings us to the inquiry, how was it done? It is perfectly idle to talk about difference of temperature or tension of vapor, the ascent of warm air, or descent of cold in a case like this; or to say that they were occasioned by a lateral overflow of some thirty miles of its upper portion, first this way and then that, in such a brief space of time. The change is equal to nearly 1/15 of the weight of the whole atmosphere, and the cause, whatever it was, existed within two or three miles of the earth. Mr. Redfield's explanation I give in his own words, at length:

"One of the most important deductions which may be drawn from the facts and explications which are now submitted, is an explanation of the causes which produce the fall of the barometer on the approach of a storm. This effect we ascribe to the centrifugal tendency or action which pertains to all revolving or rotary movements, and which must operate with great energy and effect upon so extensive a mass of atmosphere as that which constitutes a storm. Let a cylindrical vessel, of any considerable magnitude, be partially filled with water, and let the rotative motion be communicated to the fluid, by passing a rod repeatedly through its mass, in a circular course. In conducting this experiment, we shall find that the surface of the fluid immediately becomes depressed by the centrifugal action, except on its exterior portions, where, owing merely to the resistance which is opposed by the sides of the vessel, it will rise above its natural level, the fluid exhibiting the character of a miniature vortex or whirlpool. Let this experiment be carefully repeated, by passing the propelling rod around the exterior of the fluid mass, in continued contact with the sides of the vessel, thus producing the whole rotative impulse, by an external force, analagous to that which we suppose to influence the gyration of storms and hurricanes, and we shall still find a corresponding result, beautifully modified, however, by the quiescent properties of the fluid; for, instead of the deep and rapid vortex before exhibited, we shall have a concave depression of the surface, of great regularity: and, by the aid of a few suspended particles, may discover the increased degree of rotation, which becomes gradually imparted to the more central portions of the revolving fluid. The last-mentioned result obviates the objection, which, at the first view, might, perhaps, be considered as opposed to our main conclusion, grounded on the supposed equability of rotation, in both the interior and exterior portions of the revolving body, like that which pertains to a wheel, or other solid. It is most obvious, however, that all fluid masses are, in their gyrations, subject to a different law, as is exemplified in the foregoing experiment; and this difference, or departure from the law of solids, is doubtless greater in aeriform fluids than in those of a denser character.

"The whole experiment serves to demonstrate that such an active gyration as we have ascribed to storms, and have proved, as we deem, to appertain to some, at least, of the more violent class; must necessarily expand and spread out, by its centrifugal action, the stratum of atmosphere subject to its influence, and which must, consequently, become flattened or depressed by this lateral movement, particularly toward the vortex or center of the storm; lessening thereby the weight of the incumbent fluid, and producing a consequent fall of the mercury in the barometrical tube. This effect must increase, till the gravity of the circumjacent atmosphere, superadded to that of the storm itself, shall, by its counteracting effect, have produced an equilibrium in the two forces. Should there be no overlaying current in the higher regions, moving in a direction different from that which contains the storm, the rotative effect may, perhaps, be extended into the region of perpetual congelation, till the medium becomes too rare to receive its influence. But whatever may be the limit of this gyration, its effect must be to depress the cold stratum of the upper atmosphere, particularly toward the more central portions of the storm; and, by thus bringing it in contact with the humid stratum of the surface, to produce a permanent and continuous stratum of clouds, together with a copious supply of rain, or a deposition of congelated vapor, according to the state of the temperature prevailing in the lower region."

The italics in the foregoing extract are mine; and, in relation to it, I observe:

1st. There is no cylindrical vessel around storms, and air will not thus resist air. Confessedly, such resistance is necessary. Let any one watch his cigar smoke, and see how readily it moves on, with little momentum. Let any one try the experiment of creating a whirl in the open air, or in a room, or box of paper, or other material, which can be suddenly removed, with air colored by smoke. I am exceedingly mistaken if he does not find the presence of a "cylindrical vessel," absolutely essential to prevent the instantaneous tangential escape of the air.

2d. Turn back to page 3 and look at the fall of the barometer in the polar regions (recorded in the extract from Dr. Kane), with scarcely any wind, and as little variation in its direction, and see how utterly Mr. Redfield's theory fails to account for the phenomena.

3d. If I understand Mr. Redfield correctly, he has abandoned the claim as originally made, that the wind moves in circles, expanding, and spreading out by a "lateral movement," and now asserts that it blows spirally inward, and elevates the air in the center. I quote:

"VORTICAL INCLINATION OF THE STORM WIND.--By this is meant some degree of involution from a true circular course. In the New England storm above referred to, this convergence of the surface-winds appeared equal to an average of about 6 deg. from a circle. In the present case, such indication seems more or less apparent in the arrows on the storm figures of the several charts, where the concentrical circle afford us means for a just comparison of the general course of wind which is approximately shown by the several observations.

"Perhaps we may estimate the average of the vorticose convergence, as observed in the entire storm for three successive days, at from 5 deg. to 10 deg.--out of the 90 deg. which would be requisite for a congeries of centripetal or center-blowing winds. This rough estimate of the degree of involution is founded only on a bird's-eye view of the plotted observations. But, however estimated, this involution seems to afford a measure of the air and vapor which finds its way to a higher elevation by means of the vortical movement in the body of the storm."

If the elevation of the air at the borders of the storm, and depression in the middle, resulted from the outward tendency and "lateral movement" of the revolving air, and from the centrifugal force, as in the experiment with the water in a cylindrical vessel, as stated in the first paragraph quoted, an involution of from 5 deg. to 10 deg. from the action of a centripetal force, must carry the air inward, and the barometer should stand highest in the middle of the storm. The change is fatal to his theory. The two are diametrically opposite in character and effect. In one, the superior strata would be brought down in the center by the lateral pressure outward; in the other, they would be elevated by the involution, which "affords a measure of the air and vapor which finds its way to a higher elevation," etc. It is perfectly obvious Mr. Redfield has refuted his own hypothesis.

In doing this, he is met by the other difficulty alluded to, which he does not attempt to explain. This gathering of the air inward, spirally, by a centripetal force, if it took place, not only would not depress, but must elevate the barometer in the center, above that of the adjoining atmosphere.

When he first attributed the depression of the barometer to a lateral movement and centrifugal force, he supposed the superior strata descended into the depression, and their frigidity occasioned the condensation, and cloud, and rain. How he now proposes to account for the formation of cloud and rain during storms, while the warm air of the inferior stratum finds its way to a higher elevation in the center of the storm, he does not inform us, and we must wait his time.

"I have," he says, "long held the proper inquiry to be, what are storms? and not, how are storms produced? as has been well expressed by another. It is only when the former of these inquiries has been solved that we can enter advantageously upon the latter."

The former does not seem to be yet solved, or the solution of the latter commenced. Mr. Redfield tells us (page 259, and onward), that there is an extended stratum of stratus-cloud, which overlies the storm, and that it does not differ greatly from one mile in height. We are not told how the air, which finds its way to a higher elevation during several days continuance of such a storm, gets through the stratum. If he is right it must do so, and it would not answer to suppose a very small opening or gentle current through it, to carry off all the air which works inward in a hurricane, during several days continuance. But he does not seem to recognize either the necessity or existence of any vent at all; nor is there any; and this fact is open to the observation of every school-boy in the country; and it is equally open to his observation that when and where the barometer is most depressed, the stratus storm-cloud is nearest the earth. Colonel Reid has much to say about the "storm's eye," or "treacherous center" of a storm. A careful analysis of the instances where the "storm's eye" is noticed will show that the term is applied, in the northern hemisphere, to that lighting up in the W. or N. W., which is the commencement of the clearing-off process, and attended with a shift of wind to the fair-weather quarter: i. e., to W. or N. W. Just such an "eye" as is seen when the last of the storm cloud has passed so far to the east as to admit the rays of the sun under the western or north-western edge of it. The same kind of "storm's eye" is described in the southern hemisphere, except that the wind shifts to S. W. instead of N. W., that being the clearing-off wind there. No instance of a "storm's eye" in the center of the extended stratum of stratus-cloud, which overlies the storm, can be found recorded, to my knowledge; and it is obvious that Colonel Reid adopts the view of Mr. Redfield, that the westerly and N. W. fair weather winds are a part of the storm. So long as these gentlemen hold to that opinion they will never solve the question, "what are storms?" or reach the other, "how are storms produced?"

Notwithstanding, Mr. Redfield asserts, or adopts the assertion, that the inquiry should be, "What are storms?" not "How are storms produced?" that inquiry should be a rational one, and should not violate all analogy, or call for an explanation which science can not rationally furnish. Mr. Redfield does not seem to have formed any just conception of the immeasurable power of a hurricane, five hundred miles in diameter; or of the nature of that rod which the Almighty must insert in it, to whirl it with such violent and long-continued force; nor any just conception of the tendency of the whirling mass, in the absence of his "cylindrical vessel," to fly off, tangentially, into the surrounding air; or of the nature or power of the centripetal force necessary to hold the gyratory mass in its current, and gather it in involute spirals toward a center. Nor has any other man who has witnessed, or read of mountain-tossed waves; of the largest ships blown down and engulfed; of towns submerged, and vessels carried far inland, and left in cultivated fields, by the subsidence of the sea; of sturdy forests and strongly-built edifices prostrated; or listened to the howling of the tempest, and felt his own house rock beneath him, been able to conceive of any known form of calorific or mechanical, or other power, acting from a comparatively small center, which could hold such an immense irresistable mass of whirling air in a circle, and gather it in toward the center in gradually contracting spirals. I confess that, to my mind, it seems little less than a mockery of our intelligence for Mr. Redfield, or Professor Dove, or any other man, how distinguished soever he may be, to tell us that all this is the result of a "tendency to left-wise rotation" of ordinary winds, "coming into each other," or "over-sliding," or "meeting," or "encountering," on this "front," or that, down in Central America, or in the West Indies, or the monsoon region; or to talk of "lateral overflows" from mere gravity; of the ascent of warm air, or the descent of cold strata; of the resistance of adjacent passive air, or other mere atmospheric resistances in connection with such awful manifestations of power. Their explanations of these phenomena are not rational, nor can they be believed by any rational man, who will bestow upon them half an hour of comprehensive, unbiased reflection.

Waiving many minor points of great force, for this notice of Mr. Redfield's theory is already too much extended for my limits, I am constrained to take issue with him on the fact, and to assert, unhesitatingly, that in a majority of instances no such barometric curve exists.

Doubtless the depression beneath the storm is found, and exterior lateral elevations may also be had by extending the line into the usual fair weather elevation on each side, as Mr. Redfield is obliged to do, to get his supposed circle of winds at all. Doubtless, too, the seamen sailing out of a storm, on either side, and approaching fair weather, will have a rising barometer. But from front to rear, on the line of progression, in tropical storms, the curve does not exist on shore, in this latitude, oftener than in two, or possibly three, cases in ten; and then only upon a single state of facts--that is, when there is an interposition of N. W. wind; and this, at some seasons, rarely occurs. An elevation usually occurs before the storm, on its front, if it present an extensive easterly front, as one of these classes does, and a depression is left after it has passed off, unless a considerable body of N. W. wind interposes, as heretofore stated. But when there is not such interposition of N. W. wind (for W., W. N. W., or even N. W. by W. will not suffice), there is not an immediate rise of the barometer corresponding in rapidity and extent with the fall, and frequently none during the first twenty-four hours of bright, fair weather. Let the reader, if he has access to a barometer, note this fact, for it is obvious and conclusive.

Finally, there are other atmospheric conditions to which the barometric changes are obviously due:

1st. The counter-trade is of a different volume, at different times, over the same locality, and hence a difference in the normal elevations of the barometer.

2d. It is at a different elevation, at different times, over the same locality. It was so found by the investigations of the Kew Observatory Committee referred to; has been so found by other aeronauts, and may readily be seen by a careful, practiced observer.

It is highest, with a high barometer, in serene weather, when a storm is not at hand; and can sometimes be plainly seen to ascend when a considerable volume of N. W. wind is blowing in beneath, and elevating, simultaneously, the trade and the barometer.

Opportunities occur every year, when the northern edge of the dissolving stratus-cloud is attenuated, and the storm is clearing off in the N. W., with wind from that quarter, and a rising barometer, when its gradual elevation may be observed to correspond with the volume of that wind.

3d. During storms, with a low barometer, the trade and the clouds run low. This, too, is clearly observable, especially when the stratus-cloud passes off abruptly, very soon after the rain ceases. In such cases the barometer will remain depressed for a considerable time, unless another storm supervenes speedily, or the wind sets in from the N. W.

4th. The trade, in a stormy state, moves faster than when in a normal condition. This is observable during the partial breaks which frequently occur in storms, and at other times. It is also inferable from the more rapid progress of the more intense center, and other intense portions of storms, and the consequent greater depression of the barometer, under such centers or intense portions. (See the storm of Professor Loomis.) It is obvious, also, from the greater rapidity of progress attending the more intense and violent storms which all investigations discloses.

These simple facts explain all the phenomena:

1st. The trade stratum is a continuous unbroken sheet, and its descent must displace a portion of the surface atmosphere. A portion of it is impelled forward, aiding in the precedent elevation of the barometer, and a portion is attracted backward, into the space from which a like portion had been previously attracted by the passing storm cloud, forming the easterly wind.

2d. The increased progress of the stormy portion of the counter-trade occasions an accumulation in front of the storm, and an elevation of the barometer, and tends also to increase the depression under the spot from which it moves. The latter is, to some extent, counteracted by the thin sheets of surface wind which are drawn in under the stratus from the sides. That which is drawn from the front in successive portions, fills the space from which like portions had been drawn to the westward, and left behind in a passive state by the passing storm. Thus, the surface atmosphere of New England may pass under the entire width of a storm, as a gale; moving now in puffs with great violence, as it passes beneath irregular and intense portions of the cloud, and now moderately; and be left, in a passive state, in Kentucky, occupying the space from which the atmosphere had been previously drawn by the same storm, in like manner, on to northern Texas.

3d. The nearer the stratus-cloud to the earth, the greater the displacement of surface atmosphere, the lower the barometer, and, ordinarily, the more violent the wind. First, because the same intensity, which, by attraction, brings the trade near the earth, acts with greater force upon the surface atmosphere; and, secondly, the storm winds, which are often most rapid beneath the clouds and above the earth, are likely to be felt with more violence at its surface, where the stratus cloud runs low, especially at sea.

I desire to commend all these facts, in relation to the theory of Mr. Redfield, to the careful attention and observation of those who, although believers in the theory, are not wedded to it; and who have a sincere desire to understand the phenomena which are continually, and thus far, mysteriously, occurring within two or three miles of us, while our knowledge of the distant worlds around us--the science of astronomy--seems almost perfect.

I will return to a further and a careful consideration of the nature of the reciprocal action between the earth and the counter-trade, and the facts bearing upon the question, in another chapter. It is obvious that received theories can not aid us materially in the inquiry.