Transactions. 15 
28°40 in., at mid-day to 28-00 in., and about 6 p.m. it reached 
the extremely low point of 27-61 in., after which it began slowly 
to rise till, at 9 p.m., the reading was 27:70 in. The depression 
moved from west to east—as such depressions for the most part 
do—and had a very extensive area, embracing all the west of 
Europe. Readings below 28-5 inches were observed in all parts 
of the kingdom, but the north of Ireland and England and the 
south of Scotland appear to have been the centre of the depres- 
sion. At Belfast the reading at 1.30 p.m. was 27-38 in.; at 
Dumfries about 6 p.m., 27°60 in.; and at Leith a little later, 
27°65 in. This circumstance—of the South of Scotland being in 
the centre of the depression—is probably the explanation of the 
fact that, though the barometer fell nearly as low as in the great 
storm of January, 1884, and in some places even lower, the force 
of the wind was not nearly so great as in that destructive storm. 
In these cyclones, as they are called, it is well known that the 
wind, instead of blowing in a rectilinear direction, whirls round 
the depressions, and is most violent at some distance from the 
centre, or area of lowest pressure, which is often comparatively 
ealm. The south of Scotland and north of England appears to 
have been the centre in this instance, but farther south, on the 
coast of Wales and in the English Channel, there was a violent 
gale, which caused much destruction to shipping. For an 
example of an opposite condition of barometrical pressure, or 
anti-cyclone, a term used to describe an extensive area of high 
pressure with slight gradients, the month of September may be 
referred to, when for twelve successive days, from the 13th to 
the 25th, with one exception, the barometer stood above 30 in., 
culminating in 30°58 in. on the 15th. During that time there 
were ten successive days on which no rain fell, from the 15th to 
the 25th. A still better example was furnished by the latter 
part of June and the beginning of July. From the 26th June 
to the 10th July, a period of fourteen days, the barometer ranged 
from 29-98 in. to 30°43 in., and during that time the winds were 
yery light, and only one-hundredth of an inch of rain fell. It is 
not without reason, therefore, that a continuous high state of the 
barometer is commonly associated with settled weather, for the 
period mentioned was by far the finest and warmest part of the 
summer. The theory of meteorologists regarding these cyclones 
and anti-cyclones is that the atmosphere which envelopes the 
earth resembles an ocean, which, like the sea, is more or less 
