IS. TERRESTRIAL PHYSICS AND METEOROLOGY. 89 



those incident to the best methods of reducing the baromet- 

 ric pressure itself. The methods proposed by him are evi- 

 dently applicable, within moderate limits of error, only to such 

 systems of observation as are in vogue in Europe, where but 

 one daily report is sent to the central station, and are to a 

 far less degree applicable to the system of tri-daily observa- 

 tions carried on in the United States. Jeline7c, Meteor. Zeit- 

 sckrift, IX., 1 1 3-1 2 1 . 



REMARKABLE BAROMETRIC DEPRESSIONS IX ENGLAND. 



Marriott has aiven an account of a remarkable barometric 

 depression that occurred on the morning of the 24th of Jan- 

 uary, 1872, all over Great Britain. In several portions of 

 England, where the barometer is said seldom to fall to 28.7 

 inches, the pressure was observed to be 28.2 inches. The at- 

 mospheric phenomena attending this depression have been 

 specially investigated, at the request of the Council of the 

 Meteorological Society of London. The depression appears 

 to have touched the coast of England near Falmouth about 

 midnight, and to have passed along the coast at the rate of 

 thirty-seven miles an hour until 3 A.M. of the 24th, when it 

 took a northerly course, reaching Birmingham at 6 A.M., 

 the rate of progress being about forty miles an hour. It then 

 moved north-northeastward at the rate of thirty miles an hour, 

 until 9 A.M., traveling across England at a faster rate than 

 when moving along the coast. It passed over the mouth of 

 the Humber, and beyond the reach of English observers, be- 

 tween 10 and 11 A.M., its general course having been north- 

 east by north, at the average rate of about thirty miles an 

 hour. On the east and southeast sides of the depression the 

 force of the wind was much greater than on the opposite 

 sides, but the barometric gradients were much steeper on the 

 western than on the eastern sides. The gale was one of the 

 most violent that had been experienced for a considerable 

 period, many lives being lost, and much damage done to prop- 

 erty and shipping. In order to find analogous instances of 

 depressions, in this portion of England, it is necessary to go 

 back for a number of years. There are only four on record 

 in which this depression lias been exceeded: viz., in 1791, 

 1814, 1821, and 1843; and in these the lowest recorded ba- 

 rometers were respectively 28.15 inches, 28.32, 27.93, and 



