81 



been found to " discloso a cycle closely corresponding mth the 

 sun-spot period." This striking confirmation of the sun-spot 

 theory, as regards wind disturbances, was the result of an exam- 

 ination of " the returns of marine casualties posted on Lloyd's 

 Loss-book, from 1855 to 1876," being two periods of eleven years 

 each ; from which it would ajspear that the percentage of casualties 

 was decidedly greater in the years of maximum sun-spot than in 

 the years of minimum sun-spot. It is allowed, however, " that 

 the two periods of eleven years for which the returns of marine 

 casualties are available, form a very narrow basis for a statistical 

 induction."* 



And some may be disposed still to ask the question — whether 

 gales are more frequent, or more violent, no^v than formerly 1 To 

 Avhich it may l)e answered, there is no evidence to show that, 

 taken on an average of years, they differ either "in frequency or 

 violence from what they have always been. The great storm of 

 1 703, of which so much has been said above, might seem, indeed, 

 to point the other way. It might be thought that no storm like 

 that had ever occurred since ; and perhaps not, at least in this 

 country. That storm was an exceptional one. The late Admiral 

 Fitzroy, whose experience as a sailor, and knowledge of what the 

 power of wind is in a violent tempest, renders him a competent 

 judge, says that De Foe's account of it " will bear criticism." He 

 seems to consider it as probably not exaggerated. Yet in reference 

 to the above question, after speaking of that particular storm, he 

 gives it as his opinion that " the greatest storms on record do not 

 appear to exceed those occasionally witnessed now," In another 

 part of his " Weather Book," in relation to our own country, he 

 says — "No year passes in which the British Islands are not 



* See an Article in ''The Nineteenth Century," No. 9, for November, 1877, 

 p. 583, in which will be found an account of the present state of our knowledge 

 respecting the sun-spot theory, in connection with meteorology, and frona 

 which the above statement is taken, along with a few other particulars relating 

 to this subject. 

 6 



