104 



60 are more numerous and more violent eddies found, and they re- 

 volve in different directions in either hemisphere, because the direc- 

 tion of the parent trade-wind is also different in each.* 



These mechanical causes, we may be certain, are acting, and must 

 have the chief share in the effects which we observe, and should 

 therefore be followed out in all their consequences, before we attempt 

 to introduce any problematical forces which cannot possibly have 

 much, if they have indeed any effect. 



The following Donations to the Library were announced : — 



Flora Batava. Aflevering 166. 4to. — From the King of the 



Netherlands . 

 Memoires de I'Academie Imperiale des Sciences de St Petersbourg. 



Sciences Mathematiques, Physiques et Naturelles. Tome IVn>e^ 



Liv. 3 & 4. 4to. 

 Memoires presentes a I'Academie Imperiale des Sciences de St 



Petersbourg, par divers Savants, et lus dans ses Assemblees. 



Tome VI™e. Liv. 5 & 6. 4to. — From the Academy. 

 Memorie della Reale Accademia della Scienze di Torino. Serie 



Seconda. Tomo XI. 4to. — From the Academy, 

 Annales de TObservatoire Physique Central de Russie. 1848, 3 



tom. 4to. — From the Observatory. 

 Compte Rendu Annuel, Addresse a M. le Comte Wrontchenko, 



Ministre des Finances, par le Directeur de I'Observatoire Phy- 

 sique Central de Russie, A. T. Kupffer. 1850. 4to. — From 



the Editor. 

 The American Journal of Science and Arts. Vol. XII., No. 36. 



8vo. — From the Editors. 

 Bulletin de la Societe de Geographic, i^^ Serie. Tom. I. 8vo. — 



From the Society. 



* I have just met with an, at first sight, anomalous instance, in the account 

 of a circular storm experienced by the American exploring expedition under 

 Captain Wilkes in the neighbourhood of the Cape De Verd Islands, a similar 

 latitude to the West Indies, but on the " wrong" side of the Atlantic, and 

 moreover revolving with the hands of a watch, " wrong" also. But the parent 

 ■wind in this case is described to have been SE., which explains everything ; 

 and shews that the whole phenomenon is an affair of mechanical conditions in the 

 currents of air at the place ; that these being reversed, the hurricane phenomena 

 are reversed also, and that there is no magnetic or other virtue residing in either 

 hemisphere, and compelling air to circulate in any particular direction by reason 

 of its place. 



