452 Admiral Fitz-Roy [March 2S, 



tension, rapid changes are noticed as the wind shifts — and circuitous 

 eddies, storms, or cyclones occur. 



Otherwise — when their meeting is, as first mentioned, gradual — 

 there is the return of a portion of either current (which previously 

 prevailed) either direct or deflected— deflected even through more tlian 

 one quadrant of a circle — by its advancing opponent — and retaining 

 for some considerable time its own previous characteristics. 



Thus we have, for short times, cold dry Winds from the south-west, 

 instead of the usual warm and moist ones ; — or winds of this latter kind 

 from the north, instead of cold ones. The circuitous tendency of air 

 in motion — and the numerous impediments to its horizontal progress, 

 such as land, ranges of mountains, hills, or even cliffs — induce many a 

 deviation from normal directions, extremely puzzling to the student of 

 this subject ; but so retentive is air of its tension and temperature, for 

 a time, that, like currents in the ocean, each may be traced by its 

 characteristics as long as within our island web of stations. When the 

 polar current is driven back by a tropical advancing from a southerly 

 direction gradually — their action united becomes south-easterly (from 

 the south-eastward), and as the one or other prevails, the wind blows 

 more from one side of east or from the other. 



So retentive of temperature are oceanic currents, that when H.M.S. 

 'Nile' was going from Halifax to Bermuda, in May, 1861, Admiral 

 IMilne found the temperature 70° at the bow, — while only 40° at the 

 stern, as he entered the Gulf Stream. 



Time is required to produce motion in the air — horizontally — time 

 is indispensable for its gradual cessation from movement. Statical 

 effects are noticed, at observatories — or by careful observers anywhere 

 — hours, or days, before dynamical consequences occur. 



The present daily forecasts, or premonitions of weather, are drawn 

 up on the following arrangement. Districts are thus assumed : — 



1. North Britain (including from the Moray Firth to the middle 



of Northumberland) along the coast. 



2. Ireland — generally — around the coasts. 



3. Central (Wales to the Solway) coast-wise. 



4. East Coast (from Northumberland to the Thames). 



5. South England (from the Thames round to Wales) by the 



coast. 



As our space is very limited, and as some words are used in different 

 senses by different persons, extreme care is taken in selecting those 

 for such brief, general, and yet sufficiently definite sentences, as will 

 suit the purpose. 



Such words as are on published scales of force, or nature of wind 

 and weather, are generally understood, and therefore used in preference 

 to others. 



In saying, on any day, what the probable character of the weather 

 will be to-morrow, or the day after, at the foot of a table showing its 

 observed nature that very morning, — a limited degree of information 



