METEOROLOGY. 421 



by E. D. Arcliibaid, in wliicb tbe author seems to conclude that heat, 

 moisture, and the "shutting of atmospheric strata" will not explain the 

 semi-diurnal and other oscillations of the barometer. [Already in 1865 

 the present writer had occasion verbally to express to several meteor- 

 ologists and i)hysicists in Europe his conviction that the intricate ana- 

 lytical forniulse deduced by Ferrel in 1858-18G0 would eventually be 

 found to demonstrate these oscillations as a dynamic result of the mo- 

 tion of the atmosphere due to the diurnal and annual variations in the 

 action of the sun upon it as a whole. — C. A.] {Nature, xxiii, p. 557.) 



IX. — Storms. 



The idea propounded, by Mr. Oliver that the axis of a cyclone is in- 

 clined is no new one, and is controverted by E. D. Archibald, who also 

 quotes Ley and Ferrel as showing that it is far more jjrobable that the 

 axes are inclined a little forward. [Nature, xxvi, p. 222.) 



Mr. Adams is preparing to communicate by telescopic signals between 

 Mauritius and Eeunion, a distance of 134 miles. He uses a heliostatby 

 day, and a petroleum lamp with a flat wick by night. With this method 

 of signaling, if successful, it will often be possible to telegraph the 

 approach of the cyclone twenty-four to thirty-six hours before it has 

 reached Mauritius. {Nature, xxvi, p. 012.) 



An interesting popular article on tornadoes in Nature, after alluding 

 to some characteristics of these storms in America, makes the following 

 remarks relative to similar storms in England. 



In examining cyclones phenomena occasionally present themselves 

 which strongly suggest the idea that they include within their circuit, 

 as an independent meteor, the whirlwind or the tornado, the phenomena 

 in question being most frequently met with in those cyclones which pre- 

 sent, in close continuity, masses of air differing very widely from each 

 other in temperature and humidity. Of such cyclones the great storm 

 of October 14 last appears to be one. On that occasion the changes of 

 temperature and humidity were sharp and sudden, particularly from the 

 Grampians to the Cheviots, the great fall occurring when the wind changed 

 to northward. As we have already stated {Nature, xxiv, p. 585), 

 off the Berwickshire coast the darkness accompanying the changes 

 of wind, temperature, and humidity was denser and more threatening 

 than elsewhere, and almost simultaneously with the approach of these 

 changes a hurricane, or rather tornado, broke out with a devouring 

 energy which bore everything before it. The tornado character of the 

 storm off Eyemouth is shown by the accounts of some of the survivors, 

 who describe the wind as blowing straight down from the sky with an 

 impetuosity so vehement and overmastering that the sea for some ex- 

 tent was beaten down flat into a stretch of seething foam by the wind, 

 while outside this tract the waves seemed to be driven up to a height 

 absolutely appalling,- which in their turn engulfed many of the boats 

 yet remaining. Similar seas, with level wastes of seething foam, bounded 

 immediately by waves of a height and threatening aspect never before 



