292 PHILOSOPHY OF STORMS. 



the atmospheric wave which preceded it. The storm lasted 

 one day at this place, and three days at London, showing 

 that its linear dimensions were three times as great there as 

 here. The middle of the storm, or time of greatest depression 

 of the barometer, was during the forenoon of the 20th, and 

 should have been on the 25th or 26th at London, if these 

 two storms were the same. Take from this date a day and 

 a half for the semi-duration, and twenty-four hours for the 

 period which the point of greatest atmospheric density pre- 

 ceded the beginning of the snow, and we have the 23d for 

 the date of the greatest rise of the barometer at London, ac- 

 cording to Mr. Espy's theory. 



Whether such a rise and depression of the barometer was 

 observed in London, or not, remains to be learned. It is 

 by no means improbable, however, that if observations in 

 the whole intermediate space on our northern coast, and on 

 the Atlantic ocean, could be obtained, the remarkable storm 

 of the 25th and 26th of December, would be fqjmd to be 

 the same, which did so much harm to the shipping in our 

 ports, and off our coast, on the night of the 20th, and the 

 morning of the 21st. 



Should such be found to be the case, it will then be an 

 important subject of inquiry, whether the unusual retarda- 

 tion of our homeward bound vessels from Europe in De- 

 cember, and the lateness of their arrival in January, after 

 a passage of forty, and sometimes fifty days, and, in short, 

 whether the appalling losses sustained by our insurance 

 offices at that period, were not, in some degree, owing to 

 their track being crossed by this violent storm, whose width 

 in the direction of their course, must have been near fifteen 

 hundred miles. Should such a circumstance be shown to 

 be probable, then would the occurrence of similar meteoro- 

 logical phenomena in the winter months on land, be re- 

 garded as the prelude to similar disasters at sea, the fore- 

 sight of the merchant and underwriter, and the protecting 



