PROGRESS OF METEOROLOGY IN 1889. 243 



Ileliu forms over the district, the chief features of the phecomeuon 

 beiug the followiog : A heavy bank of cloud rests alouy; the Cross Fell 

 range, at times reaching some distance down the western slopes, while 

 at a distance of 2 or 3 miles from the foot of the Fell a slender roll of dark 

 cloud appears in mid-air and parallel with the Helm cloud ; this is the 

 Helm bar. The space between the Helm cloud and the bar is usually 

 quite clear, while to the westward the sky is at times completely covered 

 with cloud. A cold wind rushes down the side of the Fell and blows 

 violently till it reaches a spot nearly underneath the Helm bar, when 

 it suddenly ceases. The Helm wind was observed sixty-three times in 

 1880, and nineteen times in 1887. {Mature, xxxix, p. 131.) 



Wind velocity in the United States. — Mr. F. Waldo, in an extended 

 l)aper on the distribution of wind velocity in the United States, divides 

 the signal service stations into typical groups, and plots the annual 

 march of wind velocities for each group. The relation of wind velocity 

 to areas of low pressure and the variation with altitude are discussed, 

 and charts are given showing the January, July, and annual distribu- 

 tion. {Am. Meteor. Journal, vi, pp. 219, 300, 308.) 



Sea-breeze. — Prof. W. M. Davis has made a report to the New England 

 Meteorological Society, giving the results of special observations of 

 the sea-breeze at one hundred stations, chiefly in Massachusetts. 



The general theory that the sea-breeze is caused by the difference of 

 temperature between the land and water requires the breeze to begin 

 at the shore and to extend its area seaward, while observation shows 

 that the breeze begins out at sea and works its way iu-shore. It may 

 be explained by supposing that the circulation of air is not established, 

 but in process of establishment, and that the quick morning expansion 

 of the laud air causes a reverse gradient at the shore line, turning the 

 surface winds toward the sea. This gradient disappears as the expan- 

 sion of the air causes an upper outflow, and then the inland progress of 

 the sea-breeze is effected. There should in this case be a difference of 

 barometric pressure at land and sea stations, and such observations of 

 pressure and temperature have been made by Blanford in India. 



The depth of sea-breeze was determined by balloon observations at 

 Coney Island to be between 300 and 100 feet. (Aw. Meteor. Journal, 

 VI, p 1.) 



Ocean currents. — Prince Albert of Monaco has presented to the Paris 

 Academy of Sciences a paper on the surface currents of the North 

 Atlantic. Of 1,075 floats cast into the sea from the Rirondelle, 140 have 

 already been recovered at various points. These apparently demon- 

 strate a circular movement of the surface waters round a point situated 

 somewhere to the southwest of the Azores. The outer edge of this 

 current sets east-northeast to the neighborhood of the English Channel, 

 where it is deflected southward along the coasts of Europe to the Cana- 

 ries, thence trending southeast to the equatorial current, thus com- 

 pleting the circuit by merging in the Gulf Stream. {Nature, XL, p. 

 167.) 



