136 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



is of far more effect than mere static pressure, as indicated by thi 

 barometer. 



Mr. , said that in the Lake Onondaga, after a long storm 



the winds would blow the water high up on one side of the lak 

 and leaving it low on the other. He had made the same observe 

 tions on the action of the wind on water. In still air, a light win 

 clings to the water, and moves a surface of two or three inches i 

 depfh. After a long South or S. E., or S. W. storm, the fishei 

 men on Long Island say that the whole sea is blown up on Lon 

 Island ; this occurs every three or four years ; it makes large san 

 banks ; these are held there by short grass ; the sea beats ov( 

 these and forms Lagoons, and these are filled with fish, and thes 

 remarkable changes in the land are brought about by wind. 



Prof. Johnston, of Middletown, said that at the gale of la 

 September, the barometer fell Ih inch, and the tide rose five fe-i 

 at Middletown. 



Prof. Loomis said that in the State of Maine the tide rises six < 

 eight feet from long continued east winds ; there would be 

 storms, but merely a long continued wind from the east. In o» 

 case the tide rose from this cause so as to move a log a distance ■ 

 three or four rods, which had lain there for fifty years as remen 

 bered by the oldest inhabitant. 



Mr. Johnston said that in the great gale of September, 182 

 the steamboat left New-Haven for New-York ; there was a gre 

 rise in the tide that night ; the boat anchored off Morris' Gov 

 there was a ledge of rocks generally bare close by ; the boatpii 

 ed her cable and was lifted clear over the ledge safely into de 

 water by the rise of the tide. 



Prof. Rogers said that much of this effect w^as also owing tot 

 peculiar property of the adhesion of wind to water, one of t 

 most beautiful laws in the economy of nature, otherwise the ■ 

 mosphere would slide over the surface of the sea, and all the 

 neficial effects of storms would be lost. Another thought occurr 

 to him : the ordinary beat of the surf would not throw up th< 

 coral reefs to the height we find them ; it is done by the win 

 mass of the ocean, pressed on by the trade winds for a long tin 

 that thus piles them up so far above the ocean level. 



Mr. Redfield made a few observations on the effects produced 

 the shape of shores, by what are called converging waves, and th) 

 upheaval force. 



Prof. Rogers said that the committee of last year had raad« 

 call on the Secretary of the Navy requesting him to cause obser 

 tions to be made in relation to certain points in Hydrography, ^ 

 teorology. Natural History, &c. &c. Now, sir, we propose to se 

 a request to the Secretary of War to institute a new and separi 

 line of inquiry onth&great subject of the level of the Continen 



