STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 109 



blowing out of an area covered by a high barometer, in a curvilinear 

 motion, represented by a receding spiral; and into an area covered by a 

 low barometer, by what is called a contracting spiral. The former wind^ 

 were called anti-cyclonal ; the latter cyclonal : both terms admirabl) 

 express the facts of the phenomena. 



Naturally when the human race is brought face to face with the fact 

 that there is an out-blowing wind from an area of high barometer, the 

 question suggests itself, whence comes the air to supply and sustain this 

 continuous outflow ? As the outflow is from all sides of the area, evidentl}' 

 the supply is not furnished laterally. Therefore, if man had not so much 

 error to unlearn, which has been inculcated in the schools about wind, 

 and which he has passively received as true, without investigation, and even 

 without questioning — the truth would flash upon his mind, that the air 

 supplying and air sustaining this continuous outflow must come from the 

 zenith ; for under the circumstances it cannot come from any other point. 

 Since the air comes from above, a graphic representation of such a 

 descending current is a whirlpool in the atmosphere — like the Maelstrom 

 on the coast of Norway — over the central point of the area covered by a 

 high barometer. Hence the atmosphere, instead of being piled up and 

 deeper over such an area, as is generally supposed, is actually shallower ; 

 and the high barometer indicates \\\^ pressure of this descending column, 

 and not the static weight of the atmospheric stratum. Since the winds 

 blowing into an area of low barometer are cyclonal, and approach in 

 contracting spirals toward the focal center of the area ; therefore what 

 becomes of that wind that not only blows inward toward the focal center, 

 but intensifies its velocity inversely as the distance from the center ? We 

 again see that, to an unprejudiced mind, the conclusion is irresistible that 

 the air, driven with such intense velocity to a common center, must 

 ascend. The column of ascending smoke, seen in a calm over a large fire, 

 vividly represents what is taking place over a storm center. Contrary, 

 again, to i)opular opinion, the atmosphere instead of being depressed over 

 such a center bulges up, and its stratum is deepest there. But if the stra- 

 tum is thickest, how does it come that the barometer shows it has less 

 weight? Upon the same principle that the descending column over an 

 area of high pressure affects the barometer, but with the direction of 

 motion reversed. In the ascending column, over an area of low pressure, 

 the pressure is eased by the force propelling the ascending column. In 

 neither the ascending nor descending current does the barometer indicate 

 the weight of a static column of the superincumbent atmosphere, but the 

 pressure to which it is subject. 



We have now struck a warm and plain track of the winds, and witli 

 a little patience and preseverance will run them down. This track, the 

 high and low barometers must lead us to their homes, and enable us to 

 unravel the mystery of their apparently irreconcilable movements, so that 

 where we now onlv see complication, confusion and discord, we will 

 then see only order, simplicity, harmony and concord. Before we can, 

 however, attain our object, we must do some preliminary work by arrang- 

 ing the order of our pursuit. 



