POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



125 



open shallow well or spring, and had become 

 very tame. In the well was a flat stone, one 

 end of which projected above the water. 

 On this small birds would alight to drink, 

 and the villagers suspected that more than 

 one of them had fallen victims to the trout's 

 rapacity. This surmise proved to be cor- 

 rect, for, one day while the owner of the well 

 was passing with some friends, a splashing 

 in the water caused them to turn and look. 

 There was the trout struggling hard to gulp 

 his prey. One of the spectators fearing 

 that the fish would be choked by the wing- 

 feathers, thrust his hand into the water, 

 and caught hold of them. But the trout, 

 unwilling to surrender any part of his prize, 

 held on resolutely, and the feathers had to 

 be taken from him by force. 



Meteorological. In the eighth of Prof. 

 Loomis's papers on Meteorological Phe- 

 nomena, published in the American Journal 

 of Science for January, with a view to deter- 

 mine the circumstances under which storms 

 originate, the author takes all the instances 

 iu which the barometer fell below 29.25 

 inches at any station, Mount Washington 

 and Virginia City excepted, during a period 

 of twenty months from September, 18*72, to 

 May, 1874. The number of instances was 

 148, and corresponds to 44 different storms. 

 Two-thirds of these storms had their origin 

 north of latitude 36, and one-half upon or 

 very near the Rocky Mountains. Two of 

 them came from the Pacific Ocean, three 

 from the Gulf of Mexico, one from near 

 Cuba; others were widely distributed in 

 Wyoming, Dakota, Colorado, and elsewhere. 

 The first stage in each of these storms was 

 the development of an area several hundred 

 miles in diameter, over which the barometer 

 was about thirty inches, with areas of high 

 barometer on both the east and west sides, 

 a thousand miles distant. These areas of 

 high barometer are one of the most impor- 

 tant causes of the storm which succeeds. 

 From this cause there arises a movement 

 of air toward the central area which is rela- 

 tively one of low barometer. The air thus 

 in motion is deflected to the right by the 

 earth's rotation, giving rise to the well- 

 known rotary motion of air during a storm's 

 progress ; there also occurs a diminished 

 pressure in the central portion, and an up- 



ward movement of the air. The upward- 

 rushing air carries with it large amounts of 

 aqueous vapor which is condensed into rain. 

 By the condensation of the vapor, heat is 

 liberated, causing expansion of the air, and 

 more violent inward movement of the wind. 

 The rainfall thus tends to increase the force 

 and violence of the storm, and invariably 

 occurs when the storm is at its height. 

 Heavy rains usually occur eastward of the 

 storm-centre that is, eastward of the area 

 of lowest barometer and usually diminish 

 when the centre has passed. The author 

 says, " I have found no instance of violent 

 storms which was not attended by consider- 

 able rainfall, but the rainfall is to be con- 

 sidered as a result, not the cause of the first 

 movement of the wind." 



It was shown, iu a former article, that 

 storms have a forward motion, which is usu- 

 ally a little north of east. No sooner is a 

 storm-centre formed than it begins to change 

 its position. The storm's movement seems, 

 with few exceptions, to correspond with that 

 of the atmosphere, the average annual prog- 

 ress of which is from west to east. Prof. 

 Loomis says that on the west side of a storm 

 a pressure occurs, resulting from the cause 

 which determines the general circulation of 

 the atmosphere, and which exists whether a 

 storm occurs or not. A storm disturbs the 

 atmosphere chiefly in its lower portion ; in 

 the upper portions the general atmospheric 

 movement goes on. The depressions of the 

 atmosphere on the west side of a storm are 

 from these conditions filled up, so that the 

 barometer is continually rising closely in 

 the rear of a storm, but as continually fall- 

 ing as before explained, just eastward of the 

 storm-centre. It is a matter of common 

 observation that, when a storm-centre is 

 passed, high barometer and clear air are 

 close at hand. Other conditions of a storm's 

 progress are presented, and the interesting 

 fact developed that high barometer, east 

 and west of a storm-area, remains unaffected 

 by the tempest that is raging between those 

 areas whence Prof. Loomis infers that the 

 air inflowing in the storm and rising at or 

 near its centre flows outward at a consid- 

 erable elevation to the areas of high ba- 

 rometer, having been deprived of its aqueous 

 vapor. It thus appears that a vertical circu- 

 lation is going on during a storm's progress. 



