HOPKINS'S OBJECTIONS. 485 



barometer. In no pla'ce is it stated that, as the barometer 

 fell, it became cold! Indeed, it may be presumed, that 

 where the storm raged it was warm ; as, if it had been 

 really cold, as shown by the thermometer, the strength of 

 the wind would have caused it to seem very cold to the 

 feelings. Mr. Espy says, that steam is the moving power 

 in storms ; but, if so, that moving power may be modified 

 by various circumstances. In January the dew point is 

 commonly as low as 32, and in summer it rises to 60. 

 Now the quantity of steam in the atmosphere, when the 

 dew point is 32, is ^th of the whole atmosphere ; when 

 the dew point is 52, it is i5 5 th; when 73, it is eoth, or four 

 times the quantity at 32. 



We see, then, that there is a much smaller supply of this 

 moving power in winter than in summer, and yet the great- 

 est storms occur in winter. The great atmospheric cur- 

 rents are very much stronger in the winter than in the 

 summer ; may it not be that some cause acts upon these 

 currents when at their superior strength? Suppose an 

 upward current, such as that described by Mr. Espy, to 

 interrupt the progress of the upper current of the atmos- 

 phere, and cause it to descend to the surface of the earth, 

 would not such a descent produce all the phenomena 

 which were experienced during the storm of which we are 

 speaking? A general review of all the facts given, respect- 

 ing this storm, warrants the following conclusions : That 

 the weather had been cold and windy before the storm, but 

 not uncommon for the season. That the storm was felt the 

 earliest on the western coast of Ireland, coming from the 

 west ; then in Scotland, later in England, and lastly in Den- 

 mark, always proceeding from the west. The line of great- 

 est damage was from near the Shannon to the mouth of the 

 Humber. From Liverpool to Alford, in Lincolnshire, salt 

 spray was carried in large quantities across England, and 

 the tides were thrown up on the land on the western coast 

 of Lancashire, and from land on part of the eastern coast 



