Blasius.] -^"^ [Jan. 18, 



the papers complained of the Signal Service for having indicated that fear- 

 ful storm with predictions of "fine weather ;" and, whether officially or 

 by some friendly service, a kind of an excuse came from Washington that 

 that storm must have passed to the northward and outside of the United 

 States Signal Service stations. In that case the Canadian Signal Service 

 ought to have observed it. But it did not, because it worked on the same 

 method as the United States Signal Service. That storm, however, must 

 have passed somewhere. Then Prof. Abbe, the scientist of the Signal 

 Service, came to the rescue and demonstrated clearly (?) that that storm 

 probably originated near the coast of Senegambia, Africa, on August 13, 

 moving north-westerly across the Atlantic until the 23d, when its course 

 changed to a north-easterly direction, running up the coast of North 

 America, gathering force meanwhile, until it culminated near the coast of 

 Nova Scotia and Newfoundland ; after which it continued its course, with 

 diminishing force and increasing size, across the Atlantic, reaching the 

 northern part of Great Britain on the 31st, and Norway on the 2d of Sep- 

 tember.* This was indeed a remarkable journey of a storm, which be- 

 comes more wonderful by the fact that Prof. Abbe located its centre 

 about two hundred miles away from the coast, yet reported the greatest 

 or rather all destruction as taking place on the coast ! 



The affair became quite amusing as well as interesting to me. I pro- 

 cured the Signal Service charts of the state of the atmosphere over the 

 United States, and showed by their own maps that the storm had come 

 from Manitoba, crossed the country by way of the lakes over the Signal 

 Service stations, to the south-east and east to the coast from New Jersey 

 to Nova Scotia.f To the uninitiated it may appear incomprehensible that 

 a storm should travel over the United States Signal Service stations as a 

 bringerof "fair weather," and develop to such fury and severity on the 

 coast. But such is the case. 



The reason for this apparent paradox consists in the fact that the lead- 

 ing meteorologists define a storm or cyclone as an area of low barometric 

 pressure. A storm is, therefore, not expected unless the barometer begins 

 to fall. The area of high pressure or the anticyclone, according to their 

 rules, brings fair weather. I have shown, as early as 1851, that this 

 theory is not correct, and that the area of low barometric pressure is not 

 the storm but only the effect of the storm, and that the areas of high baro- 

 metric pressure, under certain circumstances, bring the most violent and 

 destructive storms, especially when they reach our coast. J I am corrob- 

 orated in my views by practical men such as the late Com. Wyman, Chief 

 of the Hydrographic Office, Bureau of Navigation, United States Navy, 

 who says in a letter to me : "It [my book] is borne out by my experi- 



* Chief Signal Officer's Report for 1873, p. 1025, Appendix E. 



t Storms, their Nature, Classification and Laws, etc., pp. 180-197. Porter & Coates, 

 1875. 



I Ibid., pp. 91-114. 



