May 9, 1878] 



NATURE 



31 



sphere laden with aqueous vapour on the colour 



of the hill in the background. 

 268. "The Alps at Rosenlaui "— V. Cole, A. Glo- 

 riously true. The fading of colour in the 



distant bosses is perfectly rendered — the depth 



of the atmosphere can be gauged. 

 306. "Struyve Rocks, coast of Arran" — Geo. E. 



Hering. A red sunset, nearly perfect in colour 



from top to bottom ; if the yellow had faded 



into green it would have been better. Compare 



red with 353. 

 324. "Conway Marsh" — Jos. Knight. Sunset green, 



and deep blue hill admirable, but I doubt the 



colour of the foreground. 

 405. "Gleaners" — H. R. Robertson. Red, yellow, 



green, good. Moon nearly right, which is 



wonderful. (This by the way). 

 587. "Shining after Rain: Loch Etive"— Geo. E. 



Hering. The work of a careful observer. 

 615. "The Lowing Herd winds slowly o'er the Lea" 



— H. W. B. Davis, R A. Perfect sunset (poor 



moon !). (Again by the way). 

 647. " An Autumn Walk " — A. E. Emslie. Good red 



and yellow. 

 739. "Sunset on the Jungfrau, Monch, and Eiger " — 



Jas. W. Smith. The blue below and red 



above on the snow perfectly rendered. 

 788. "The Written Valley, Wilderness of Sinai" — 



Henry A. Harper. Good, but not so good as 



739. 



I next come to those pictures which I think are inac- 

 curate in colour. 



86. "Christiana with her Family, accompanied by 

 Mercy, arrive at the Slough of Despond : Mercy 

 finds a way across"— R. Thorburn, A. Im- 

 possible cloud colours. Clouds bluer than sky 

 and atmosphere nowhere. 



146. "Solitude"— P. F.Poole, R. A. Impossible green 

 sky and cloud. 



201. B. Riviere, A. Unnatural moonlight and im- 

 possible pea-soup shadows. The softness and 

 colour of the latter suggest that Mr. Riviere 

 has never studied moonlight. 



231. "David, the Future King of Israel, while a 

 Shepherd at Bethlehem "—J. R. Herbert, R.A. 

 Colour impossible both in quantity and quality. 



240. "A Dream of Ancient Egypt : the Morning of 

 the Exodus " — Andrew MacCallum. I should 

 like to hear the painter lecture on the con- 

 nection of the colours of bodies with the 

 light which falls upon them. 



298. "Jarl Hacoi in the Pentland Firth"— J. Hope 

 •M'Lachlan. High blotches of red over green 

 and yellow impossible, and brick-dust beams of 

 light proceeding from nothing still more im- 

 possible. 



309. " The Sunrise Gun, Castle Cornet, Guernsey " — 

 Tristram Ellis. Sky colour good ; impossible 

 colour of water under sky conditions given. 



353- "After the Rain"— W. H. W. Foster. Un- 

 natural sunset, colour and distribution of light 



424. "The Last Journey" — Clara Montalba. Impos- 

 sible green sky ; the sun is neither setting nor 

 set. 



483. "An Autumn Sunrise " — Cecil G. Lawson. 

 Interesting as a foretaste of the future when 

 the sun shall have cooled. 



525. A. Dixon. Green hopelessly wrong. 



542. "The Dee Sands "—J. W. Oakes, A. Sky 

 colours impossible with so high a sun. 



555. "The Last of the Wreck"— E. Ellis. Green 

 clouds ! 



630. " An Incident by the Wayside " — Mark Anthony. 

 Impossible blue sky. 



These, then, are the pictures I shall use as texts in my 

 future notes. J. Norman Lockyer 



THE AMERICAN STORM WARNINGS'- 



I HAVE now to direct attention to "Atlantic Storms,— 

 Whence they come and where they go?" All 

 storms that cross the Atlantic Ocean to the coasts of 

 Europe come from the equatorial zone of the Atlantic 

 from the Pacific Ocean, or are developed from depres- 

 sions on the American continent by peculiar operations 

 of the law of atmospheric movements. The most 

 prolific source of storms for the field of observation just 

 sketched is the Pacific, but all the disturbances coming 

 thence do not necessarily originate there. As I have 

 stated, storms pass over the Pacific from the Asiatic as 

 they do from the American continent over the Atlantic, 

 but generally in more northerly latitudes. Their num- 

 ber cannot be accurately determined until a similar 

 system of observation to that now in operation from the 

 West Indies to Newfoundland is organised on the Eastern 

 coast of Asia. As it is we are dependent on observations 

 made along the Pacific coasts of the United States, 

 British territory, Mexico, and the Central American 

 States, for information regarding the arrival of storms 

 from the westward on this continent. Fortunately the 

 observers are now numerous enough to constitute an 

 effective guard against the possibility of even a small 

 storm centre passing inland unnoticed. These coast 

 observations furnish reliable evidence of the fact that 

 storms arrive on this continent from the Pacific much in 

 the same manner as Atlantic storms reach Europe. It 

 is my purpose to trace as closely as possible the move- 

 ments of the various types of storms that originate in or 

 cross the Atlantic from west to east,' and I will begin with 

 those whose first appearance is observed on the Pacific 

 coast of the United States. 



It has been noticed that storm areas approach these 

 Pacific coasts as large depressions with a comparatively 

 low energy of rotation around their centres. But when 

 the area reaches the line of the coast or cascade range 

 of mountains in Oregon and Washington territory, its 

 outline is changed from the distorted circular to that of 

 the irregular elliptical, and the northern end of the latter 

 figiure is carried toward the coast line more rapidly than 

 the southern one, causing, as a rule, the first rainfall in 

 the line of first contact with the land. Therefore, over 

 Vancouver's Island and Western Oregon a rapid con- 

 densation of atmospheric moisture takes place which so 



' Continued from p. 7. 



