3* - PARISH. •[i'^i^B. 25, 1856. 



Seventh Meeting, February 25, 1856. 



Sir RODERICK I. MURCHISON, V.P., in the Chair. 



Viscount Boyne and the Hon. Arthur Dillon were elected Fellows. 



The Papers read were — 



1. On the Formation of Cyclones, and on the Tracks they pursue. By 

 Captain Alfred Parish. 



Communicated by Capt. FitzKoy, r.n. 



Captain Parish's Paper is strictly argumentative, and hardly admits 

 of condensation ; the facts upon which his arguments rest are stated to 

 be derived in part from his own observation, and in part from the investi- 

 gation of a number of log-books to which he has had access. His con- 

 clusions are, that all winds, excepting where influenced by the proximity 

 of much land, are parts of Cyclones ; obeying in their respective hemi- 

 spheres the laws which have now been proved to govern hurricanes, 

 both with regard to their tracks and rotatory motions. When the Cy- 

 clones (or rotatory winds advancing on a line) are of very large dia- 

 meter, such as those of which he conceives the trade winds to form a part^ 

 they strike the earth's surface diagonally ; but when they are of limited 

 diameter, as those in the higher latitudes, or of still less diameter, as in 

 the hurricanes of the tropics, they either descend horizontally or else so 

 nearly so, that they may always be looked upon as horizontal. 



Captain FitzEoy paid a tribute of esteem to the author, who was a nephew 

 of Sir Woodbine Parish, and captain of an Indiaman ; and who, during the last 

 fourteen years, had made several voj'-ages to India, and had employed his leisure 

 time on board shij) in making a series of observations. He had thus given an 

 example of what the captains of many of our large merchantmen are now 

 doing, whose painstaking and able observations have already produced most 

 valuable results. 



The opinion of Captain Parish resembles that of Professor Dove', the 

 great German authority on atmospherical questions, who had stated his 

 views upon these subjects at the meeting of the British Association in 1854. 

 Captain Parish, he thought, had carried the principle rather too far. He 

 takes a view which is often adopted by those who have been much smitten 

 with the Cyclone theory, and are inclined to think of exceptions rather than 

 of the rule, the rule being as follows : — There is a regular movement of vast 

 masses of the atmosphere in certain directions all the year round ; between 

 these greater streams are eddies moving more or less as cyclones, being modified 

 by the temporary influences of heat or some electrical causes which we do not 

 yet thoroughly understand. These great atmospheric movements are seen in 

 the zone of trade-winds on either side of the equator, and in the westerly 

 winds of higher latitudes. If we lay down the courses of the trade-winds 

 for every month, we shall see that they agree in direction from month 

 to month throughout the year, especially between the parallels of 10° and 20° ; 

 indeed they blow in nearly uniform lines the whole year thrdugh : there is 



