82 ANNUAL HECOKD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



Zeitschrift a review of the principal points of his work on 

 " Storms, their Nature and Classification." 



A welcome contribution to the theory of cyclones is given 

 by Guldberg and Mohn in the third of their papers in the 

 Vienna Zeitschrift elucidating the results given in their 

 "Etudes." Assuming; that descending; and ascending cur- 

 rents of air exist, they develop the consequences, and give 

 some of the laws controlling cyclonic and anticyclonic move- 

 ments. In the interior of a cyclone the path of a particle of 

 air is a logarithmic spiral with a deviation from the radius 

 vector greater than that normal to the latitude and gradient. 

 The formula connecting velocity and gradient as given by 

 them agrees closely with observation. 



The lamented J. Elliott, whose death occurred in Febru- 

 ary, 1877, had completed, shortly before his decease, a mem- 

 oir on the Backergunde and Vizagapatam hurricanes of 

 October, 187G, which is a model of thoroughness, and to be 

 classed with the admirable monographs of Blanford and 

 Wilson. Elliott inclines to the opinion that an extended re- 

 gion of calm bounded by opposing winds (trades and mon- 

 soons) preceded the initiation of these whirlwinds, and is the 

 principal determining feature in all the Indian cyclones. 



The report of 1S77 of the London Meteorological Office 

 states that a very large number of logs of vessels have been 

 collected relative to the great hurricane of August, 1873, 

 which passed near the coast of Nova Scotia. Daily weath- 

 er charts and isobars for the whole month have been com- 

 piled for the North Atlantic Ocean, and the whole investi- 

 gation, which will soon be published, is probably the most 

 thorough that lias yet been bestowed upon any Atlantic 

 hurricane. It is said to be clearly shown that this hurri- 

 cane did not reach Great Britain, as was suggested by 

 the present writer in his brief preliminary report to the 

 Chief Signal Officer in September, 1873. 



A preliminary communication to the Royal Service Insti- 

 tution by Captain Toynbee, with its invaluable charts, shows 

 that the hurricane was to a great extent broken up on the 

 south coast of Newfoundland, and amounted to only a storm 

 when it reached Norway. 



Wijkander concludes with reference to the storms of the 

 North Sea near Spitzbergen that they pass either on the w r est 



