STUDIES IN NATURE 



In our country we are more often under the 

 influence of a cyclone than of an anti-cyclone, 

 and in a cyclone the winds are spinning round 

 in the opposite direction. If we look again at 

 the telegraphic reports, we shall find that the 

 centre of a cyclone is an area of low pressure. 

 It follows that air is forced inwards from other 

 places where the pressure is higher, and a 

 column of rising air must exist at the centre. 

 The cyclone is just like the movement of water 

 in a basin, when it is allowed to run away 

 through a hole in the bottom and given a left- 

 handed swirling motion ; or rather, would be 

 like that water if we imagine the basin turned 

 upside down, so that the water was drawn out 

 of the basin at the top, and was still made to 

 revolve in the counter-clockwise direction. 

 Moreover, just as the water in the basin swirls 

 faster and faster the nearer it gets to the centre, 

 so the strength of the wind increases towards 

 the centre of the cyclone, till near its core there 

 may be a violent gale. The other most im- 

 portant thing to observe is that the cyclone 

 itself moves as a whole. In England, for some 

 reason not yet clearly understood, the path of 

 most cyclones is from south-west to north-east, 

 and the core of the cyclone usually passes over 

 the north of England or Scotland. 



From what we have said about the circulation 

 of the winds, it will be clear that as the cyclone 

 moves over us the wind must change. If, as is 



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