1865.] on the Meteorological Department. 313 



reference has been made to Mr. Babington for such further information as 

 may have been subsequently obtained. His reply to General Sabine is as 

 follows : 



"'I can quite confirm your impression respecting Admiral FitzRoy's 

 belief in the evidence of the existence of small cyclonic storms in England 

 itself, originating in or near our islands, and generated in the brushing 

 against each other of the N.E. and S.W. currents ; and in reply to your 

 question I beg to say that I believe there is satisfactory evidence of the 

 existence of such storms, but that these small storms are not very frequent 

 three or four in a year perhaps and that they are, I think, more common 

 in summer than in winter, although usually of less violence. The direction 

 of their motion is certainly almost invariably towards some point between 

 N.N.E. and E.S.E. With regard to the rapidity of their motion, I scarcely 

 feel able to express an opinion ; but at the ordinary rate of progression it 

 takes such a storm about forty -eight hours to pass from Ireland to the 

 Baltic. Not unfrequently, however, they appear to die out (as it were) 

 before travelling so far.' 



" The existence of such storms in our islands is a fact in meteorological 

 science of considerable interest, for which we are indebted to the researches 

 instituted and carried on by Admiral FitzRoy's department.- Though not 

 of very frequent occurrence, they constitute a class of phenomena well 

 suited for telegraphic advertisement, especially on our eastern and north- 

 eastern coasts. It might perhaps be practically desirable to indicate them 

 by a special signal, distinguishing them from storms which have a more 

 uniform direction. But however this may be, it seems to be desirable that 

 the occurrence of such storms and their attendant phenomena, as obtainable 

 at the time, shojild be carefully recorded, with a view to the records being 

 ultimately put together in elucidation of a branch of the meteorology of 

 our islands which has hitherto been but imperfectly examined. 



" We proceed to notice the points on which we are informed that the 

 Board of Trade especially desire the opinion of the Royal Society and 

 particularly the inquiry whether the objects specified in the Royal Society's 

 letter of the 22nd of February 1855 are still viewed as of the same importance 

 for the interests of science and navigation as they were then considered. 



" The most prominent amongst these objects was the collection and co- 

 ordination of meteorological observations made at sea, including such as 

 are required to form a correct knowledge of the currents of the ocean, their 

 direction, extent, velocity, and the temperature of the surface water rela- 

 tively to the ordinary ocean temperature in the same latitude, together 

 with the variations in all these respects which currents experience in dif- 

 ferent parts of the year and in different parts of their course. These as 

 well as the facts connected with the great barometric elevations and depres- 

 sions which we know to exist in several oceanic localities, and their influence 

 on circumstances affecting navigation were noticed as inquiries well de- 



