i 



75 



them being so thick and heavy during the few minutes the shift 

 was taking place as to render objects out of doors almost inAosible. 

 In one case the temperature also, which previous to the shift had 

 been as high as 81?, fell soon after to 65°, and later in the day 

 to 56°5. 



The usual direction of the storms that reach the British Islands 

 is from S.W. to X.E., or, speaking more exactly, from anj' point of 

 the compass Ijetween S.W. and X.W. to any point in the quadrant 

 between N.E. and S.E. They do not, however, as already 

 observed, always keep to the same direction throughout their 

 course ; nor to the same form. On first setting out they occupy 

 an area of a form approaching more or less that of a circle or 

 ellipse, but from various circumstances this form is liable to 

 become very irregular while crossing the Atlantic, In some cases 

 " the storm parts into two, or more rarely, three distinct storms, 

 which remain separate for some time, and afterwards reunite ; or 

 they continue separate and diverge, one taking one direction, the 

 other a different." Or two storms, distinct in origin, may come 

 into collision and disturb each other's movements ; or several 

 storms may become so mixed up together as to have not merely 

 their form altered, but their violence lessened or increased as the 

 case may \je. Sometimes storms die out altogether before reach- 

 ing our shores. There is record of a ship having left the shores 

 of America in perfectly fair weather, and after going a very 

 moderate distance, encountering a most Wolent storm for two or 

 three days, which again settled down into a calm before reaching 

 Europe, These several circumstances render the predictions, 

 which we every now and then receive by cable from America, as 

 to storms having left that side of the Atlantic and being calculated 

 to arrive here on a particular day, very uncertain. They may 

 not arrive the exact day they were expected, or their fury may be 

 much abated before they get to us, or they may not come at alL 



And here we are brought to the last part of our subject, the 

 question whether we are ever likely to be able to predict these 

 storms mth more success than at present. 



