563 



none of them, nor indeed any part of the work, could yet be con- 

 sidered as nearly complete, and that much matter would still be 

 added as, from time to time, information might be obtained from 

 various sources. 



The storm of the 26th of October was first noticed in accurate 

 records, and measured by instrumental observations, in the Bay of 

 Biscay, near Cape Finisterre in Spain. This particular tempest did 

 not come from the west, but from the south-south-west, true. 



Successive barometric effects of the storm were traced by similar 

 means in that direction from S.S.W. to N.N.E. across England, from 

 the Channel through Cornwall, across the central southern counties 

 and Lincolnshire, over the North Sea to between the Shetland Isles 

 and Norway. 



By referring to these charts and the diagrams, it will be seen that 

 the lowest barometer and a corresponding or simultaneous lull pre- 

 vailed over ten, fifteen, or twenty miles consecutively in the direc- 

 tion pointed out. But at the time that this comparative lull existed 

 there was around this centre, by some called a vortex (but it can hardly 

 be appropriately so termed, because there was no central disturbance), 

 only variable wind or calm for a short time in the middle of the space, 

 which was about ten or fifteen miles in irregular area. 



The wind obtained a varying velocity of from 60 to 100 miles an 

 hour at a distance of from twenty to about fifty miles from this space, 

 and in unequal eddyings crossed England towards the north-north- 

 east, the wind blowing from all points of the compass around the 

 lull. When at Anglesea the storm came from the north-north-east, 

 in the Straits of Dover it was from the south-west ; on the east coast 

 it was easterly ; in the Irish Channel it was northerly, and on the 

 coast of Ireland it was from the north-west. 



The charts show that this circulation or cyclonic commotion was 

 passing northwards from the 25th to the 27th, being two complete 

 days from the time of its first great strength in the " Chops of the 

 Channel," while outside of this circulation the wind became less and 

 less violent ; and it is very remarkable that even so near as on the 

 west coast of Ireland there was fine weather with light winds, while 

 in the British Channel it blew a furious northerly and westerly gale. 



At Galway and at Limerick on that occasion there were light 



