90 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



28.20. In the discussion which ensued on the presentation 

 of Mr. Marriott's paper, Mr. Scott stated that among the ex- 

 traordinarily low readings of the barometer should be re- 

 membered that of the 5th of February, 1870, when 27.33 had 

 been recorded on board the Cunard steamer Tarifa, while, in 

 1839, Dr. Knight, at Aberdeen, recorded 27.56, and in 1828, 

 on the 28th of November, Dr. Robinson, of Armagh Observa- 

 tory, had recorded 27.61. On this latter occasion the ba- 

 rometer readings at Dublin had ranged below 28 inches for 

 twenty-four hours, and, as might be expected with such an 

 extensive depression, there had been no storm. Mr. Burt 

 also remarked that great depressions of the barometer had 

 occurred about the middle of January during the last five 

 years..Q'w. Jour. Meteor. JSoc, London, 1873, 190-220. 



THE NOVA SCOTIA CYCLONE. 



Captain H. Toynbee presented to the Meteorological Soci- 

 ety of London, at its last meeting, a short account of various 

 data which have come into the meteorological office of the 

 Royal Society respecting the storm which was so disastrous 

 in its effects on the coast of Nova Scotia, and, indeed, along 

 its entire path over the Atlantic Ocean. The most interest- 

 ing portion of Captain Toynbee's remarks was based upon 

 the report of Lieutenant M'Farlane, of her Majesty's steamer 

 Plover. This gentleman states that if the circular theory 

 were correct, there was nothing left to investigate in refer- 

 ence to this hurricane, excepting to trace its progress from 

 the formation to its breaking up; but if the ideas promul- 

 gated in Mr. Meld rum's note on the form of cyclones in the 

 Southern Indian Ocean were correct, then it was incumbent 

 on the meteorologists of the northern hemisphere to institute 

 a similar inquiry, since there would then necessarily result a 

 modification of the rules in use among seamen for avoiding 

 the severest portion of the cyclonic storms. The author ex- 

 pressed the hope that all data in reference to the Nova Sco- 

 tia storm may be collected, either by American or English 

 meteorologists. This suggestion, it may be remarked, has 

 already been anticipated by the action of the Army Signal- 

 office, as will be seen from the extended report on this storm 

 drawn up by Mr. Abbe, and printed in the annual report of 

 the Chief Signal Officer. 12 A, 1873, 155. 



