198 



NA TURE 



[Jan. 1, 1! 



as that which passed swiftly across our islands during the 

 night of the 19th to 20th, and had its centre off Yar- 

 mouth at 8 a.m. on the 20th, having travelled about 2600 

 miles in four days and four hours, or at the rate of twenty- 

 six miles an hour. This rate is somewhat high for an 

 average extending over so long a period, but it is in ac- 

 cordance with former experience for an isolated storm- 

 centre, and is fully supported by the high' rate of progress 

 the storm had when traversing England. The barometri- 

 cal gradients in the rear of this storm were very steep, 

 and the difference of pressure was accompanied by a 

 heavy gale on the 20th over the whole of the southern 

 portion of our islands 



We are glad to see that the Meteorological Council are 

 taking steps to ascertain the atmospheric changes which 

 are going on over the Atlantic, since the weather of that 

 ocean has such an important bearing upon that of the 

 British Islands. It is now no longer a matter of specu- 

 lation as to where the weather comes from which strikes 

 our coasts, but the synchronous charts which have been 

 prepared by the Meteorological Office, both under Ad- 

 miral FitzRoy and the subsequent governing body, as well 

 as by Leverrier, Hoffmeyer, Neumayer, and the Signal 

 Service of the United States, amply prove that in the 

 north temperate zone of the Atlantic, at least, there is a 

 regular movement of the weather-systems from west to 

 east, or, more strictly, from some point between west and 

 south-west towards east and north-east. These weather- 

 systems not only embrace storm areas, but, to a very 

 large extent, all the ordinary weather changes. It is our 

 intention here, however, to limit our remarks to the ques- 

 tion of storms and unsettled weather, as not only being 

 of primary importance, but the conditions with such 

 weather will, although of a more pronounced type, illus- 

 trate in a very great measure almost all other meteorological 

 changes. 



Probably the enterprising proprietors of the New Yoi'k 

 Herald have done more of late years than all other au- 

 thorities put together to popularise the fact that our 

 weather changes traverse the Atlantic, but the notion, if 

 nothing more, of the easterly translation was in existence 

 180 years ago, for Daniel De Foe, in his discussion of 

 the great storm of 1703, inclines to the opinion that it 

 came from America, since, as he says, " they felt upon 

 that coast an unusual tempest a few days before the fatal 

 27th of November." 



The United States Signal Service has for several years 

 past published monthly track charts of all storm-centres 

 in the North Atlantic, and the most cursory examination 

 of these is sufficient to prove that very valuable informa- 

 tion might be transmitted to Europe from America with 

 respect to the weather experienced by trans-Atlantic 

 steamers on their outward passage. Prof. Loomis, who 

 has devoted considerable attention to the tracks of 

 Atlantic storms, has calculated the average velocity of 

 storm-centres in the Atlantic Ocean to be fourteen miles 

 an hour, and has shown the rate of progress to be less 

 over the sea than over either America or Europe. Some 

 other authorities have given rather a higher rate of 

 progress than Prof. Loomis, but when a large number of 

 instances is taken it will not be found that the average 

 rate exceeds twenty miles aiV hour, and probably this rate 

 is the safest that our present knowledge of the subject 

 will allow. The charts of the United States Signal 

 Service for 1879, which exhibit the tracks of ninety-two 

 distinct storm-centres in the Atlantic, show the average 

 rate of progress of all these storms to be eighteen miles an 

 hour. From this it will be seen that, with the speed now 

 attained by niany of our principal steam-vessels engaged 

 in the trans-Atlantic trade, if a storm is met anywhere to 

 the westward of the mid-Atlantic, a vessel can, on arrival 

 at a port in the United States, transmit timely notice 

 to Europe that a storm has been experienced, and such 

 notice will serve as a caution to our home authorities to 



be on the alert for any evidence of our outlying stations 

 indicating the approach of the storm until its subsequent 

 arrival, or until ultimate proof is obtained that it will not 

 strike our shores. The fact that a storm is blowing out 

 in the Atlantic will also probably be valued by command- 

 ers of vessels who are leaving port bound westwards. 



The Atlantic gales differ so materially from each other 

 in their character that any information which will convey 

 the nature of an impending storm, either to vessels out- 

 ward bound or to those engaged on our coasts, will be of 

 the highest importance. It sometimes happens that the 

 whole of the northern part of the Atlantic is taken up 

 with one vast disturbance, the wind blowing with the force 

 of a gale over an area having a diameter of upwards of 

 1500 miles, and occasionally extending from the coast of 

 America to Europe. On the other hand, several disturb- 

 ances may exist at one time between the two continents, 

 and in this case a vessel is no sooner out of one storm 

 than she enters the margin of another, and these condi- 

 tions may last throughout her passage. This will be 

 readily seen from the synchronous weather work already 

 referred to ; and, if further proof is wanted, it is to be 

 found in the frequency with which storm-centres pass 

 either over our islands or in their immediate vicinity, and 

 in sufficient proximity to influence our winds and weather, 

 if not near enough to give gale force to the wind. 



The British Islands are probably less favourably situated 

 for the successful issuing of storm warnings toourown coasts 

 than any other country, since they are in the direct path of 

 the Atlantic storms, and they have not the advantage of 

 any stations within reasonable distance to the westward 

 beyond their limits by which they may be warned, so that 

 it often happens that a storm is almost upon us before its 

 approach is foreseen. An attempt was made some years 

 ago to moor a vessel at the entrance to the English 

 Channel and to connect it by a telegraph cable with our 

 coast, but the attempt was a failure, and experience has 

 shown that the step now taken by the Meteorological 

 Office to obtain Atlantic weather information is the only 

 one which promises success. 



THE ACTINLE 1 



THIS is a work which contains far more than it 

 promises. Though commenced with the intention 

 of describing only the Actinians (sea-anemones) of the 

 Bay of Naples, it has extended until it includes all the 

 species known : and although at first sight it seems 

 nothing more than an ordinary systematist's manual— a 

 dry dictionary for the specialist — it turns out on closer 

 examination to have a clearly-marked individuality of its 

 own. In its preface the author remarks, with a tinge of 

 dry humour which here and there ripples the clear pre- 

 cision of his style, that in these days of papers full of 

 histological detail, or rich with plates of caryolitic figures, 

 embryological sections, or genealogical trees, his big 

 book, apparently so purely systematic, may at first excite_ 

 among his scientific brethren a smile of compassion, if 

 not indeed a word of contempt. Far, however, from 

 renouncing his intellectual birthright of wider scientific 

 aims, he claims with justifiable pride to have produced 

 (and at a self-denying outlay of time and toil not excelled by 

 that of any histological investigation) no mere arid cata- 

 logue of genera and species, but a summary of the whole 

 past of actinology, and a new starting-point for the 

 future. He promises, too, a second volume, in which the 

 anatomy, histology, and development, the physiology, dis- 

 tribution, and phylogeny, will be discussed, and no doubt 

 as exhaustively. 



The bibliography alone is well worth notice, for its 

 scholarly precision and thoroughness furnish a royal road 



1 " Fauna und Flora des Golfes von Neapel. Le Attinie." Monograha 

 del Dr. An°-elo Andres. Vol I. Bibliogralia, Introduzione, e Specigrafia. 

 (Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann, 1884.) 



