158 National Geographic Magazine. 



neighboring quarters. This tendency is marked in North Amer- 

 ica, as storms pass over the lake region and St. Lawrence 

 valley, whether they' have originated in the Gulf of Mexico, along 

 the central slope of the Rocky mountains in the United States, or 

 further north in the Saskatchewan country. In like manner 

 storms pass southeastward to the Mediterranean from the Bay of 

 Biscay, and northeastward from the Atlantic ocean to the same 

 sea, and then later show a very marked tendency to pass over the 

 Black and Caspian seas. 



This tendency of storms originating in diverse sections to 

 move toward the lake regions in the United States, is very 

 evident from the normal storm-track charts for April, May, June, 

 August, November and December. 



The opinion that gales rarely, if ever, occur upon the equator is 

 confirmed by these storm-tracks. The most southern storm in 

 the North Pacific ocean, developed in July, 1880, between the 

 Island of Borneo and Mindanao, an excellent account of which 

 is given by P^re Mark Dechevrens, S. J., in the Bulletin 

 Mensuelle of Zi-Ka-Wei Observatory. The most southern storm 

 over the North Atlantic ocean, in November, 1878, was remarka- 

 ble for its origin, duration, length of its path, and its enormous 

 destruction of life and property. It was central on the 1st, as 

 a violent tropical hurricane near Trinidad, the barometer being 

 29.05, the lowest ever recorded there, and, from its intensity 

 and velocity, it is more than probable that it originated consid- 

 erably to the eastward, and possibly somewhat to the southward 

 of that island. The storm was described in the U. S. Monthly 

 Weather Review for September, 1878. 



The writer looks with considerable interest to the results 

 which may follow from a discussion of the annual fluctuation of 

 the atmospheric pressure as shown by the mean monthly pressures 

 deduced from the ten years' International observations. As far as 

 these means have been examined they show that the periodicity 

 of atmospheric pressure is largely in accord with the results set 

 forth in 1885 in The Report of the Lady Franklin Bay 

 Expedition. The conviction expressed in that year is still ad- 

 hered to — that, at no distant day, the general laws of atmos- 

 pheric changes will be formulated, and that later, from abnormal 

 barometric departures in remote regions may be predicted the 

 general character of seasons in countries favorably located. 



The success of long-time predictions of this class for India, has 

 been set forth in a previous part of this report. It is believed 



