SECTION SIXTH. 



BRITISH STORMS. 



Great Liverpool Storm offtth and 7th of January, 1839. 



171. THIS storm, which proved so destructive to life and 

 property, excited a great deal of interest at the time, and I 

 was very desirous to collect authentic documents concerning 

 the phenomena which attended it. Having failed to obtain 

 sufficient data while in this country to enable me to deter- 

 mine its modus operand^ I availed myself of the opportu- 

 nity, which my visit to Europe in 1840 afforded me, to col- 

 lect further information on the subject ; and the penny post 

 then enabled me to do so without much expense a burden 

 which I find intolerable in this country. I have embodied 

 all the documents in the Appendix, which I have been able 

 to collect, and to aid the reader to understand the mat- 

 ter at a glance, I have exhibited the information concern- 

 ing the winds, on the accompanying -chart, with arrows, 

 numbered, and a corresponding brief account of the place 

 and direction of the wind between 10 and 12 o'clock on the 

 night of the 6th. At this time the central line of the storm 

 extended through the middle of England, from N, N. E. to 

 S. S. W., reaching to an unknown distance on the north 

 and south, and from the western coast of Ireland to the 

 eastern coast of Great Britain. The storm certainly ex- 

 tended on the north to Sumburg Head, Orkney, as the bar- 

 ometer there fell to 27.25 at 2, P. M. of the 7th, and as the 



