40 REPORT — 1860. 



26th of October last. Referring to the charts and the diagrams, it will be seen that 

 the lowest barometer and a corresponding or simultaneous lull prevailed over ten, 

 fifteen, or twenty miles successively in the direction I have pointed out. But at the 

 time that this comparative lull existed, there was around this central space what by 

 some is called a vortex, but can hardly be appropriately termed a vortex, because 

 there was no central disturbance : there were only variable winds or calm for a short 

 time in the middle of this space, which was about ten or fifteen miles across. The 

 wind obtained a maximum velocity of from sixty to one hundred miles an hour, at a 

 distance of twenty to fifty miles from this comparatively quiet space, and in suc- 

 cessive meteoric eddyings crossed England towards the north-north-east, the wind 

 blowing from all points of the compass around the lull, so that while at Anglesea 

 the storm came from the north-north-east, in the Straits of Dover it was from the 

 south-west; on the east coast it was easterly ; in the Irish Channel it was northerly, 

 and on the coast of Ireland it was from the north-west. The charts show that there 

 was a similar circulation, or cyclonic commotion, going or passing northwards from 

 the 25th to the 27th, being two complete days from the time of its first appearance 

 in (what is called) " the chops of the Channel," while outside of this circulation the 

 wind became less and less violent; and it is very remarkable that, even so near 

 as on the west coast of Ireland, they had fine weather, with light winds, while in the 

 British Channel it blew a northerly and westerly gale. At Galway and at Limerick 

 on that occasion there were light winds only, I repeat, while over England the wind 

 was passing in a tempest, blowing from all parts of the compass around a central 

 similar " lull." The next storm that occurred was similar in its features, though it 

 came from a slightly different direction. This storm was on the 1st and 2nd of No- 

 vember, and its character was in all respects like that just described, now usually 

 called the " Charter Gale." It came more from the westward, passed across the 

 north of Ireland, the Isle of Man, the north of England, and then went off across 

 the North Sea towards Denmark. Further than that distance facts have not yet 

 been gathered ; but, no doubt, in the course of a few months they will be. 



The general effect of these storms fell unequally on our islands, and less inland than 

 on the coasts. Lord Wrottesley has shown, by the observations made at his Observa- 

 tory in Staffordshire, that the wind is diminished or checked by its passages over 

 land ; and looking to the mountain ranges of Wales and Scotland, rising 2000, 3000, 

 or 4000 feet above the level of the sea, we see they must have great power to alter the 

 direction, and probably the velocity of wind, independently of the alterations caused 

 by the changes of temperature. The very remarkable similarities of this storm of the 

 1st and 2nd of November and that of the 25th and 26th of October, the series of storms 

 investigated by Dr. Lloyd during ten years, and the investigations of Mr. William 

 Stevenson in Berwickshire, require especial notice on this occasion. There is no 

 discrepancy between the results of the ten years' investigations published by Dr. Lloyd 

 in the Transactions of the Irish Academy, the three years' investigations published 

 by Mr. W. Stevenson, and all the investigations which have been brought together 

 during the last four years. They all tell the same story. Dr. Lloyd only found in 

 ten years one instance even of a partial storm which differed ; namely, one storm 

 that came from the north in the first instance. Storms from the south-west are 

 followed by sudden and dangerous storms from the north and east ; and these storms 

 from the north and east do much damage on our coasts. Upon tracing the facts, it 

 is proved that the storms which come from the west and south come on gradually, 

 but that storms from the north and east begin suddenly, and often with extraordinary 

 force. The barometer, with these north-eastern storms, does not give so much warn- 

 ing upon this coast, because it ranges higher than with the wind from the opposite 

 quarter. But though the barometer does not give much indication of a north-east 

 storm, the thermometer does; and the known average temperature of every week in 

 the year affords the means at once, from the temperature being much above or below 

 the mean of the time of the year, of showing whether the wind will be northerly or 

 southerly (thanks to Mr. Glaisher's Greenwich observations). 



Now to revert to a few of the signs which preceded the ' Charter gale.' For a 

 few days before that storm came on, the thermometer was exceedingly low in a 

 great part of the country ; there were north winds in some places, and a good deal 

 of snow ; but nothing else extraordinary. There had been a great deal of exceed- 

 ingly dry and hot weather previously. These facts, of course, require consider- 



