PHYSICS OF THE GLOBE. 81 



States were visited by a succession of storms, in which high 

 winds, heavy rains or snows, and very low barometric press- 

 ures were remarkably frequent. In the United States the 

 tracks of the storm-centres, or areas of lowest pressure, as 

 they moved eastward covered a region apparently far to 

 the south of that which they ordinarily occupy, while their 

 progress was generally very rapid. In Great Britain, on the 

 other hand, the progress of storm-centres was unusually 

 slow, frequently even stationary or retrograde, while the 

 general path of the storm-centres was, as in America, far to 

 the south of its usual position. In British America, on the 

 other hand, and in Russia, low temperatures and high ba- 

 rometers were experienced. The minimum temperature 

 recorded at St. Petersburg was on December 22, 43.4 

 Fahr., being the lowest observed during the last 124 years. 

 Farther eastward, namely, in Siberia, an unusual prevalence 

 of warm weather was reported ; and in the extreme west, 

 on the Pacific coast of North America, unusually little rain 

 and high temperatures prevailed. In fact, a general review 

 of the movements of the atmosphere during these two 

 months shows that there was an excess of cold dry air in 

 northern latitudes and in the interiors of both continents, 

 while over the Atlantic Ocean pressure was low and tem- 

 perature and moisture were high. Both these conditions, 

 therefore, caused a special development of the tendency to 

 a cyclonic motion around the Atlantic basin. 



These oceanic cyclones, as distinguished from smaller 

 storms, are central over the North Atlantic and Pacific 

 oceans and over the Antarctic continent, and must, accord- 

 ing to the author's present knowledge of meteorology, vary 

 in their intensity with any change in the solar radiation; 

 the phenomena of the past winter harmonize entirely with 

 the conclusion that during the present period of few sun- 

 spots the northern hemisphere has received slightly less 

 heat than when the spots were large and numerous. A 

 similar agreement between meteorological phenomena and 

 this theory was noted by us about two years ago, but the 

 satisfactory pursuit of these investigations can hardly be 

 undertaken until we have a daily weather map of the 

 w T hole world, or at least of the northern hemisphere. 



Dr. Blasius, of Philadelphia, has contributed to the Vienna 



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