Dec. ii, 1879] 



NATURE 



131 



It may be that our agricultural troubles of the past three years 

 are in some measure due to its disturbance ; if so, it is of national 

 importance that we should study its variations in order to learn 

 whether they are reducible to law, and thus capaple of anticipa- 

 tions sufficiently reliable to induce prudential preparation for 

 their national consequences. W, Mattieu Williams 



Stonebridge Park, Willesden 



[With the extreme desirableness of an immediate and systematic 

 observation, by European nationalities, of the temperature of 

 the Gulf Stream, and of variations in the rate and direction of 

 movement northwards from the tropics of the warm water and 

 of the cold water southwards we very cordially concur. As 

 another illustration of the practical utility of a better knowledge 

 than we now possess of this subject, we may refer to the higher 

 temperature and consequently larger evaporation than usual of 

 the Atlantic in lower latitudes, along with a lower temperature, 

 and consequently lower evaporation than usual farther north, in 

 the beginning of the winter of 187S-79, as being in all likelihood 

 one of the chief causes which brought us the miserable weather 

 of the last twelvemonths. It is far from being beyond the reach 

 of science to show how the larger evaporation from the more 

 southerly regions of the Atlantic continued to spread itself over 

 Europe further to south than usual, from which resulted the more' 

 southerly course pursued by our European storms, with the accom- 

 panying plague of east wind and rains over the British Isles, and 

 the commercial distress thus deepened and prolonged. The im- 

 portance of the inquiry is all the greater when it is considered 

 that the past three years have impressively taught us how, not 

 in India only, as shown by Blanford, but also in our British 

 climate, certain types of weather, such as cold, warm, wet, or 

 dry, when once fairly set in, tend to repeat themselves, and 

 stamp their character on whole seasons or even a succession of 

 seasons. It is by such lines of research that something more 

 than a mere guess of the weather of coming seasons is to be 

 obtained. — Ed.] 



The Climate of England 



Will you permit me, as a student for twenty years of the 

 phenomena and laws of weather, to express my surprise that in 

 meteorological tables or records, and weather notices in general, 

 so little attention is bestowed upon the direction of the wind? 

 It is true that in the daily forecasts issued from the Meteoro- 

 logical Office, this has been made for some time past a prominent, 

 and, to my mind, the most valuable feature. Still the point has 

 by no means been adequately dwelt upon by writers upon 

 meteorology, the result being the loose and utterly unscientific 

 talk we are accustomed to hear upon the very first principles of 

 the problem of climate. 



What is more common than to hear people remark that the 

 climate of England has changed within the last few years? Their 

 main ground for saying so is our having had for four or five 

 seasons winters of exceptional mildness, followed last year by 

 one of as remarkable severity and duration, and to all appearance 

 likely to have following it one of not very different character.' 



The popular idea of climate has always seemingly been that of 

 something affixed to the soil, a feature as fixed and characteristic as 

 the rivers or mountain chains. Now, strictly speaking, there are 

 for us but two real sources or loci of climate, the pole and the 

 equatorial belts ; the cold heavy currents of air from the Arctic 

 regions flowing south, to take the place of the light warm air 

 so rarefied by the sun's heat as to form a comparative vacuum. 

 The aerial set of flux and reflux thus tending to be set up along 

 meridian lines is deflected eastwards by the rotation of the earth 

 on its axis, with the result that in our part cf the earth at least 

 the wind is found to blow from some point of west to east for 

 much about 200 days out of the 365. So limited is our sea-girt 

 insular area, that within a few hours, depending on the velocity 

 of the wind, the whole breadth of Great Britain is traver.-ed, so 

 that instead of breathing a climate engendered by local condi- 

 tions, and to be called our own, we live in an atmosphere reaching 

 us from abroad, and modified by the conditions through which it 

 passes to us (into which I forbear at present to "enter in detail). 

 Observation combines with theory to establish the primary fact 

 that what may be called the ruling line or axis of prevailing 

 wind in our island is that from southwest to north- east approxi- 

 mately. Along this line may be said to take place, in the main, 

 the perennial contest of opposing air-currents, on which depends 

 the character of our seasons, the light warm balmy breath of the 

 equatorial current, or so-called Gulf Stream, having to battle 



with the dry, heavy, chilling atmospheric masses bearing down 

 direct from the Polar regions, or circling over the steppes of 

 Russia, or the uplands of Scandinavia. Drawing a line at right 

 angles to this, or from north-west to south-east, we shall find 

 that so long as the wind keeps well within the south-westerly 

 aspect of this diagonal, frost either sharp or long is with us 

 impossible, and as an immediate response to the vane veering or 

 backing from one side to the other, a rise or fall of the thermo- 

 meter is to be observed, which may vie with that due to the sun's 

 place in the zodiac. The mercury may be seen to stand as high 

 in January as in June. If we ask why the four or five winters 

 preceding the last severe one were so exceptionally mild, the 

 proximate answer is that during the months when the sun's 

 power continued low, we enjoyed a succession of south-westerly 

 winds which tempered "winter's flaw.'' Last year, on ihe contrary, 

 the wind kept early and persistently to the northerly and easterly 

 quarters ; and were proper tables available, I believe that an 

 abnormal prevalence of those Polar currents would be shown to 

 have marked the later seasons of this most exceptional year. 



The problem is thus shifted a step. 



What we have to inquire into is the cause or causes to which 

 is due so exceptional and persistent a flow of wind from one 

 alternative quarter to the other. 



To aim at anything like a forecast of winter or summer 

 weather before knowing what the prevalent set of the aerial 

 currents is to be, is to invert the essential conditions of the 

 problem, and to put the cart before the horse. It is for 

 meteorologists, I would urge, to concentrate their attention upon 

 the causes or laws, which determine or disturb the periodical 

 motions of the earth's envelope, especially as it oscillates to and 

 fro across the limited and exceptionally situated group of the 

 British Islands. Simple as such a suggestion may appear to men of 

 science, the notices they have as yet given us will by no means, 

 I believe, show it to be superfiuous. It is the conviction that 

 the primary and elementary conditions of the problem are far 

 from having been grasped by the general public that has led me 

 thus far to trespass upon your space. 



Gray's Inn, December 2 Alexander Taylor 



A Correction 



A few weeks ago I had some correspondence with the late 



Mr. J. Allan Broun on the subject of my communication to 



Nature, vol. xx. p. 54, in the course of which he drew my 



attention to an error in my value for the barometric oscillation 



corresponding to 1° F. (q = ~A a t Sibsagar. He said :— 



" You had a note on the difference of results for Lncknow 

 and Sibsagar both nearly at the same height ; the values of j 

 you made 001 7 and o'Q28, the latter for Sibsagar should have 



been 001S or 



A/ 



Q'477 > 

 266' 



I acknowledge the error, and take this opportunity of men- 

 tioning it as I fear Mr. Broun's article on the subject, which he 

 told me was shortly to appear in Nature, and in which he 

 would most probably have drawn attention to my error, has been 

 cut short by his sudden and lamented decease. His last letter 

 to me containing the above correction was dated November 15, 

 just a week before he died. 



I may add that while the above error (which was due to my 

 taking A t to be 166 instead of 26"6) disqualifies Sibsagar from 

 demonstrating that the value of / depends on the distance from 

 the coast independently of the altitude, the rule is nevertheless 

 generally evident, and can be shown equally well by taking 

 Goalpara instead of Sibsagar with Lucknow. 



At Goalpara h = 386 feet, 



Af = c.-4-iS = 



A.' ib'7 ° 



E. Douglas Archibald 



Tunbridge Wells, November 29 



Monkeys in the West Indies 

 IN his very interesting paper en " Tails" which appeared in 

 Nature, vol. xx. p. 510, Prof. Mivart says, "Monkeys are 

 scattered over almost all the warmest parts of the earth save 

 the West Indies, Mad?ga-car, New Guinea, and Australia. As 

 regards the West Indies the statement is not quite correct, and I t 

 am sure Prof. Mivart will be sh.d to receive the following 



