B. TERRESTRIAL PHYSICS AND METEOROLOGY. 31 



the festoons fringed or shaded away, is sometimes seen, and 

 is followed by rain only. 12 A y October 26, 18tl,505. 



PREDICTION OF EASTERLY GALES. 



An English writer, in discussing the question of easterly 

 gales, and the methods of foretelling their approach by 

 means of the barometer and otherwise, infers from the obser- 

 vations of the " Quarterly Weather Report" that such gales, 

 so far from coming almost without notice, are preceded by a 

 high barometer and a low temperature, and that an increas- 

 ing difference of atmospheric pressure between the extreme 

 limits of the British Islands is the danger-signal of the ad- 

 vent, direction, and intensity of all storms. At the southern 

 edge of these easterly gales he states that there always exists 

 a lower barometer than at the northern, and hence the change 

 of the position of low pressure marks out the track of the 

 storm. 3 A, October 28, 1870, 317. 



NEW FORM OF WEATHER-COCK. 



A German writer recommends a new form for the construc- 

 tion of weather-cocks, or wind vanes, as being more suitable, 

 and less likely to be moved out of place by slight puffs of 

 wind. The peculiarity of the vane consists in having two 

 wings instead of one, united at an angle of forty-five degrees. 

 11 O, September 12, 1870, 249. 



CALM IN THE MIDST OF A STORM. 



An Austrian meteorological journal contains an account of 

 a very remarkable calm occurring in one portion of an ex- 

 posed locality while a violent storm was prevailing in every 

 direction' round about the section in question. L. Gurlitt, a 

 well-known landscape painter, intending to make a number 

 of sketches on the chalk rocks on the coast of the Danish isl- 

 and Moen, encountered a gale blowing directly in the face of 

 the coast-line, and, failing to receive the shelter which it was 

 expected the trees, shrubs, and gullies would afford, resigned 

 his purpose, and sauntered about the locality with no partic- 

 ular end in view. He was led by curiosity to the very edge 

 of the precipice, and here, to his utter astonishment, he found 

 so perfect a calm that he was enabled not only to execute 

 the proposed drawings, but to lay his papers on the ground 



