398 CONNECTION BETWEEN STOEMS AND SUN-SPOTS. 



On the 18th of August a violent hurricane of wind did great damage in 

 Devon and Cornwall. This same storm blew down a stone wall at Sherfield- 

 place, three hundred feet long. Two days afterwards a dreadful storm 

 ' occurred at Kingston-upon-Thames (probably the same storm). On the 6th 

 of July, 1805, a terrific thunder storm passed over Somersetshire, when the 

 hailstones measured seven inches in circumference. Boston was visited by 

 a. dreadful one on the 15th of Jul}-. 1808, in consequence of which, and the 

 abnormal vising of the tide, the town and country round was deluged. Oa 

 the 10th of November, 1810, at Iffley, near Oxford, ten barns, some out- 

 houses and thirteen large stacks of hay and grain were destroyed. (This 

 damage seems to have been the result of a waterspout, as it was confined to 

 one farm — a Captain NoweFs). On the 12th of October, of the same year, 

 at Eaton Locon, Bedfordshire, a heavy storm of thunder, lightning and hail 

 occurred, during which an immense ball of fire fell, and a barn, malting 

 office and stable were burned down. On the 13th of October, 1813, a tre- 

 mendous gale and storm prevailed all over Great Britain and Ireland, doing 

 oonsiderable damage in many places. For two days, December 16th and 

 17th, 1814, a violent thunder' storm raged in London. A dreadful storm 

 burst upon the town of Worchetz, in the county of Timeswrr, on the 2d of 

 July, 1816, where out of two thousand six hundred buildings, none escaped 

 injury. On the 13th of August, in the same year, a fearful storm raged on 

 the English coast, in which much shipping was lost. Liverpool, Birming- 

 ham, Manchester, and other towns experienced a tremendous gale of wind 

 on the 27th of February, 1818. Three hundred and fifty hurricanes ^vere 

 recorded on the Atlantic coast between the years 1493 and 1855. Many, of 

 course, have occurred since the latter date. The hurricane of August, 1823, 

 in which over one thousand vessels were lost, and that of October of the 

 same year, as well as the fearful one of February, 1824, one fresh in the 

 memory of the people. The years 1868-9, one of the periods of greatest sun- 

 spot frequency, were fruitful of violent storms all over the world, particularly 

 in the United States. In a revised list of all the hurricanes on the Atlantic 

 •coast, from the earliest historic date to November, 1873, published in the 

 Paris Comptes Bendus for that month, is shown the comparison between the 

 years of the greatest number, and most destructive hurricanes, and the 

 years of the largest number of sun-sj)ot8. It is remarkably confirmatory of 

 the theory now generally accepted : That the variations in solar heat pro- 

 duce a similar variation in the terrestrial evaporation, and an increased 

 (tendency to violent storms. 



