138 Supposed Connection of Meteoric Phenomena, 



round from s.w. to n.w. and n.e., spending its fury, on the 

 23d, in France, England, Scotland, Holland, Germany, and 

 Denmark; attended, in England, with lightning, thunder, 

 hail, rain, snow, and extremely high tides. The consecutive 

 occurrence of these gales looks like one continuous hurricane, 

 the direction of the wind answering to n. On the 22d, 

 lightning was seen in a clear sky to the east, near Winchelsea. 

 The aurora was also seen that evening in Scotland, preceded 

 by thunder and lightning, and followed by ice near London, 

 and snow on the Welsh and Scottish hills. The hurricane 

 of the 23d was most fearful in its violence and effects: the 

 Superb steamer was lost, in the awful night that followed it, 

 off Jutland. On the 24th there was a terrible tempest at 

 Clay, in Norfolk : the lightning was blue, and extremely 

 vivid, and the hail lay 6 in. deep. On the 26th, Jamaica was 

 shaken by three shocks of earthquake, scarcely less severe 

 than those of Sept. 6-7., followed by thunder ; the weather 

 previously being unusually hot and oppressive. On the 27th 

 commenced another series of gales of very destructive cha- 

 racter. They began on that day at Algiers and Gibraltar, 

 from s.e., passing over Lisbon and France, and, on the 28th 

 and 29th, England ; reaching Elsinore, in Denmark, on the 

 31st, when the wind was n.w. On the 28th, I saw, between 

 Shaftesbury and Poole [Dorsetshire], about 9 — 11 p.m., a 

 luminous band, stretching across the sky from n. to s., bor- 

 dering a dense mass of clouds, which next day covered the 

 sky, the temperature rapidly decreasing, and the gale com- 

 mencing. Liverpool was visited by severe gales, from the 

 26th to the 28th ; and Great Yarmouth had snow, hail, and 

 rain, with violent squalls from the 18th to the 27th. On the 

 29th, the wind got into the east, in lat. 36° 34' N., long. 

 33° 12' w. (Log of H. M.S. Isis); and, in a few days after, 

 blew from that point in England. 



October presents two instances of extensive derangements 

 of the atmosphere in Europe ; the one apparently connected 

 with a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico ; the other imme- 

 diately following an earthquake in Jamaica; similar con- 

 nections with Brazil also occurring ; the direction of the 

 wind, obeying the laws of the hurricane, traversing in a 

 circular sweep, and finally blowing steadily from a point 

 farthest from the supposed heated focus of convergence ; the 

 electrical phenomena also corresponding in time. I have 

 little doubt that, if intermediate points be taken, and inform- 

 ation obtained from persons at sea, it will be found that the 

 draught of air in each case was to the locality where heat was 

 developed ; and that the gales succeeded each other at inter- 



