46 Transactions.— Miscellaneous. 
tenths, and that within the same twelve hours it rises to 29-64, the wind 
veering south of west as pressure increases. A southerly gale is now blow- 
ing over the South Island, and a heavy sea accompanies it at Greymouth 
and Hokitika; but the barometer is still falling at Hokianga and Wellington, 
and we further find that it rises at Hokianga, where its lowest point is 30°25 
before pressure has at all increased at Wellington, where it falls to 29-98. 
On the fourth day the barometer has risen to 29-90 at Bluff, the sea making 
moderately on the eastern coast; at Wellington the wind has changed 
southward, and pressure has decreased to 29°88; and at Hokianga the 
barometer has risen a little. The wind is now from the southward of west 
throughout the colony, and the low area which has just passed is now shown 
to the eastward. 
Now, if this cyclonic wind is a true circle, pressure should continue to 
increase in all parts of the colony until it has returned at all stations to the 
point from which it commenced to diminish, and the wind should change 
to eastward of south; but these conditions are frequently delayed for a 
considerable time, and it generally happens that the barometer commences 
to fall again in the south long before it has attained the height necessary to 
ensure complete cyclonic formation, the deficiency being curiously graduated, 
the approach to the complete form being most nearly attained in the north 
and becoming markedly less so in the south. 
To anticipate this falling movement, which is always accompanied by a 
backing wind, is one of the difficulties of weather forecast; and, as its occur- 
rence is a sure sign of more bad weather, it is evident that a warning 
received after it has taken place is deprived of much of its value in practice. 
The approach of this backing movement is shown by the tendency of the 
curves to open out, caused by there being but little difference of pressure at 
adjacent stations. It is more readily detected in the southern than in the 
northern part of the colony, there being a wider land-area in the former case, 
and it is also accompanied by a decrease of sea on the western coast of the 
South Island ; unless the new area be of large dimensions, in which case the 
sea will change northward, even while the barometer is rising; or, if the 
depressions are passing more to the southward of us than usual, and are at 
the same time moving on a north-easterly line, then the sea will continue 
from the south-west, as if the barometer were about to continue rising. 
Another point of value is humidity, which will usually be found to have 
decreased as the barometer rises, but not to the extent that the increased 
pressure would imply, while, in some instances, it will be found that an 
increase accompanies an increase of pressure ; neither of these movements 
seems unreasonable, if it can be admitted that the northern winds of one 
depression can exist in close proximity to the southern winds of the one im- 
