24 EIGHTH REPORT — 1838. 



Azores, with the wind in the southern portion of it blowing violently 

 at the west, when another storm, coming from the south, and bringing 

 up the ship Castries witli it, at the rate of seven or ei^ht knots an hour, 

 reversed the wind to east. 



The storms expanding in size, and diminishing in force, as they pro- 

 ceed towards the poles, and the meridians at the same time approaching 

 each other, gales become huddled together; and hence, apparently, 

 the true cause of the very complicated nature of the winds in the lati- 

 tude of our own country. 



Since great storms in high latitudes often extend over a circular 

 space of 1000 miles, the length and breadth of the British Islands aiford 

 far too limited a sphere for their study. Nations should unite to study 

 the laws of atmospheric changes. By exchanging the observations 

 made at the light-houses of dili'erent countries, reports would be ob- 

 tained along the coasts of the whole civilized world. If the merchant 

 log-books, instead of being destroyed, which is often the case at pre- 

 sent, were preserved in depots, each great commercial port keeping 

 its own, they would greatly assist in giving information, by simulta- 

 neous observations on the sea and along the coast. The meteorolo- 

 gical reports within the interior of different countries should, after the 

 same manner, be exchanged, and we should then soon be enabled to 

 trace the tracks of storms over almost the entire surface of the globe. 



(The author then alluded to certain electro-magnetic phenomena, 

 which offer close analogies to the phenomena of revolving storms.) 



During his investigation of the law of storms Colonel Reid endea- 

 voured also to ascertain the laws by which water-spouts revolve. After 

 many fruitless researches, he obtained at length two satisfactory in- 

 stances, one of which is from Captain Beechey. It is remarkable, that 

 in these two instances, which occur in opposite hemispheres, the revo- 

 lutions are in opposite directions, but both in the contrary direction 

 to great storms. The double cones in water-spouts, one pointing up- 

 wards from the sea, the other downwards from the clouds, peculiarly 

 mark these phenomena, and we ought to observe whether the cloud 

 alcove, and the sea below, revolve in the same directions with each other. 

 To ascertain their electrical state would be also highly interesting, and 

 this perhaps may not be impracticable, for the great hydrographer and 

 navigator Horsburgh actually put his ship through small phenomena of 

 this description, in order to examine them. 



Colonel Keid notices the apparent accordance of the force of storms 

 with the law of magnetic intensity, as exhibited by Major Sabine's re- 

 port to the Association. It is frequently remarked, with astonishment, 

 that no storms occur at St. Helena ; the degree of magnetic intensity 

 there is nearly the lowest yet ascertained on the globe. Major Sabine's 

 isodynamic lines to express less than unity are only marked there, and 

 they appear, as it were, to mark the true Pacific Ocean of the world. 

 The lines of greatest intensity, on the contrary, seem to correspond 

 with the localities of typhoons and hurricanes, for we find the meridian 

 of the American Magnetic Pole passing not far from tiie Caribbean 

 Sea, and that of the Siberian pole tlirough the China Sea. 



