59 



detail, with its destructive effects on trees, buildings, &c., in The 

 Bath Chronicle of October 18tb, as well as in the London papers, 

 for any further account of it is hardly necessary. But I mean 

 notes relating to former gales, of which after a few years there is 

 generally but an imperfect recollection in men's minds, if they are 

 not altogether forgotten ; and for this reason it may be that when 

 a "ale occurs, or indeed any meteorological phenomenon of such 

 a marked character as to force itself on the notice of all, or when 

 there prevails any unusual state of weather whatever, it is often 

 thought to be quite unprecedented. We hear the remark, " Did 

 you ever know such extraordinary weather as we are having just 

 now ?" " Sixrely last summer must be the hottest on record 1 or 

 last Avinter the most severe T as the case may be ; or, " the rain- 

 fall or the drought has been excessive beyond all experience," and 

 so forth. In like manner gales of -nand are not unfrequently 

 magnified into the most a^vful hurricanes imaginable while they 

 are raging, less and less however remaining in our recollection for 

 comparison with gales that may occur hereafter as they recede 

 gradually into the past. 



This subject may be treated both historically and scientifically. 

 "We may first chronicle the most noteworthy storms that have 

 occurred in back years, and then, secondly, investigate the laws 

 of storms in general, their nature and characteristic features, and 

 the probability or otherwise of our being ever able to predict 

 their approach with anything like certainty. 



There are ample materials at hand for the first of these 

 inquiries, in the Meteorological Registers of the Bath Literary 

 Institution, the Lockey Registers preserved in the Jenyns 

 Library, and in my own Registers of Weather Phenomena, which 

 together date back over a period of nearly 60 years from the pre- 

 sent time. For earlier periods than this, a work published some 

 years ago by Mr. Lowe, of Nottingham, entitled " Natural 

 Phenomena and Chronology of the Seasons," may be consulted 

 with great advantage. Of course to enumerate all the gales and 



