1869.] Meteorologij. 303 



in these charts he allows the facts to speak for themselves, not 

 drawing isobaric lines unless their course is fully justified by obser- 

 vations. In every case he enters these latter, pure and simple, 

 omitting the barometrical readings, unless he is thoroughly satisfied 

 as to their correctness : accordingly the charts are chiefly rej^resen- 

 tations of wind and weather. The region with which he has to 

 deal is in some respects easier to manage than that of the North 

 Atlantic, because the areas of the monsoons and other prevailing 

 winds are clearly and sharply defined. In some of them Mr. 

 Meldrum has been able to trace cyclones from their origin at the 

 southern edge of the N.W. monsoon, rotating ivith the hands of 

 a watch; while in high southern latitudes he finds the wind at 

 times moving in the opposite direction round a relative barometrical 

 maximum, forming what Galton calls "Anticyclones." Both these 

 motions are of course opposite to what obtains in the Northern 

 Hemisphere. It is sincerely to be hoped that Mr. Meldrum will 

 carry out his intention of issuing these charts for a considerable 

 period of time, so that weather may be traced consecutively from 

 day to day. We should say that the time on the charts is noon for 

 the meridian of 60° E., being the central meridian of the charts. 



The most important paper which has appeared of late in the 

 journals of our home Societies has been one of which the subject 

 is somewhat cognate to what has just been described — we mean Mr. 

 Buchan's iuvestigation of some American storms, published in the 

 October number of the 'Journal of the Scottish Meteorological 

 Society.' In this paper, which is iUustrated by three charts for 

 March 16, 18, and 19, 1861, we are presented, not only with the 

 atmospherical conditions of half the Northern Hemisphere, north of 

 the parallel of 30^ N., but also with the tracks of certain storms, 

 some of which he has traced across the Atlantic Ocean. The charts 

 have precisely the faults which have been avoided in those just 

 noticed, viz. that the isobaric lines are drawn with a free hand and 

 on insuflicient data, so that the attention is distracted from the 

 observations themselves to the interpretation given of them by the 

 author of the paper. If the line of inquiry thus undertaken by Mr. 

 Buchan be followed out by him, and the fact that storms do occasion- 

 ally cross the Atlantic be placed beyond the possibility of cavil, a 

 great step will have been made ; but in the theoretical explanation 

 given of the storms we regret to find a vagueness of reasoning, 

 which is a very serious defect, and leads us to doubt the probability 

 of his proving his case satisfactorily. Thus he reiterates the old idea 

 that the latent heat set free by condensation of aqueous vapour has a 

 material effect in reducing atmospherical pressure, without justifying 

 the statement by any calculation whatever. He also adheres to 

 the belief that the rotation of the air in a cyclone is caused by the 

 diurnal rotation of the earth, whereas the opposite to this has been 



