Se ee el 
Mr Milne on Oceanic Oscillations. 359 
In order to obtain a wider field of induction, he referred to for- 
mer instances of oceanic oscillations, and shewed that they were 
almost always accompanied with considerable atmospheric disturb- 
ances, 
He then proceeded to give an account of a remarkable storm of 
wind accompanied by thunder, lightning, and hail, which had tra- 
versed the British Islands on the 5th of July, appearing first in the 
SW. of England, and passing through the midland counties, tra- 
verSing the south-east parts of Scotland, and going off about the 
Aberdeenshire coast. 
By the lightning and large hail-stones accompanying this storm, 
much damage to property, as well as loss of life, had occurred. 
At Sheffield, the barometer was, during the passage of the storm, 
observed to sink suddenly about an inch. 
The storm appeared to have rotated, and in the usual way,—Viz. 
in a direction contrary to that of the hands of a watch,—of which 
proofs were given. 
The author then suggested, that the oscillations in question were 
probably produced by this storm. The parts of the coast where they 
were observed, coincided with the direction in which the storm moved. 
The fact that the oscillations on the Cornish and Devonshire coasts 
commenced before the storm arrived there, so far from being hostile 
to, supported this-view ; for if waves were created by the storm, as 
it approached Great Britain, these waves would advance more rapidly 
than the storm, which appeared to move northwards at the rate of 
from 70 to 80 miles per hour,—whereas the similar waves produced 
by the two Lisbon earthquakes had moved forward at a rate of from 
120 to 130 miles per hour. 
As to the way in which waves could be produced on the surface 
of the ocean, sufficient to produce the fluxes and refluxes in ques- 
tion, it was observed— 
(1.) That the wind, by its mere mechanical pressure, was capable 
of heaping up, over a large expanse, a considerable body of water. 
By the force of the south or south-west blasts in the storm, the sea 
would be elevated, and waves would thereby be formed, which would 
move forward before the storm towards the south coast of England. 
(2.) That the level of the ocean rises in proportion to the fall of 
the barometer ; so that if, as there was every reason to suppose, this 
storm was accompanied in its track by a diminution of atmospheri- 
cal weight, waves almost commensurate in extent with the diameter 
of the storm would be formed. 
In either or in both of these ways, the sea may have been, and 
probably was, so affected on the Sth, 6th, and 7th July 18438, as to 
produce the ebbing and flowing which was observed on certain parts 
of the coasts of Great Britain. 
