118 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



est values in the opposite course. Sitz. Ber. Royal Acad, of 

 Sciences, Vienna, vol. lxvii., p. 448. 



INFLUENCE OF THE SUN ON ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE. 



Hornstein, in a memoir on the dependence of the daily 

 variation of the barometer upon the rotation of the sun on its 

 axis, shows that the barometric pressure is so decidedly in- 

 fluenced by the aspect of the solar surface that the time of 

 revolution of the sun on its axis (namely, twenty -five or 

 twenty-six days) can be determined from barometric obser- 

 vations, as he has also been able to show with reference to 

 magnetic observations. Concerning the explanation of the 

 remarkable coincidences observed by him between meteoro- 

 logical and astronomical phenomena, he remarks that their 

 explanation may, perhaps, be found in the influence on the 

 earth of the electric condition of the solar surface. Sitz. Ber. 

 Royal Acad, of Sciences, Vienna, vol. lxvii., p. 416. 



THE WINDS OF THE WEST INDIES. 



The atmospheric currents that prevail at St. Thomas, in 

 the West Indies, have been succinctly described by Palgrave 

 as follows : The surface or lowest current blows approxi- 

 mately from the N.N.E., varying to the north during the 

 night and early morning, and to the east from noon till sun- 

 set. This continues with great steadiness for nearly nine 

 months of the year, its strength varying from a brisk gale 

 between 3 and 4 A.M., and about the same hours P.M., to a 

 light breeze at the intermediate hours. This current, known 

 as the trade-wind, does not appear to exceed two thousand 

 feet in vertical height. Next above this comes the south- 



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west wind ; this brings with it light cirrus clouds, while the 

 northeast wind bears light masses of cumulus, with occasional 

 short heavy showers. When the second or southwest cur- 

 rent descends low enough to have effect on or near the sur- 



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face, it is deflected to the south, and is accompanied by heavy 

 rain -clouds and electrical phenomena. Above these two 

 strata reigns the west wind, manifested by light cirrus clouds. 

 These three winds blow with scarcely any interruption from 

 November to June. Heavy gales, amounting to storms, 

 sometimes blow here during the winter months from between 

 N. and N.E. The white squalls are another peculiar class of 



