208 A. G. Hoicard. — The Winter Storms of S. Africa^ [Sept. 28, 



Suddenly a haze is seen to the north-west from which long thread- 

 like clouds stream out which gradually spread over the whole sky. 

 The general direction of these thread-like clouds is from north-west 

 to south-east. These are what the Rev. Clement Ley calls cirro- 

 Jilum, of which I will speak again. 



Followinp' these threads comes a bank of numerous small rounded 

 cirrus clouds, close together, like an immense flock of sheep. These 

 come driving up from the north-west, and as time passes on they 

 grow larger and larger and seem to run one into the other. Towards 

 the northern horizon they form themselves into a compact white 

 slieet. 



At the back of this mackerel sky, a thin hazy film begins to 

 shew. Meanwhile the wind calms down at the peak, Avhile it still 

 blows at the sea. Slowly the vane goes round and a north wind springs 

 up. The advance of the wedge is on us. Let us now take our 

 instrumental readings. They are taken, telegraphed to headquarters, 

 and reduced. The barometer is a half or a quarter of a tenth higher 

 than it should be, while the temperature has risen considerably from 

 what it was at the same time the day before ; the Avind too is north, 

 while the general surface current is south and south-east. 



SloAvly the north wind travels down the sides of the peak till this is^ 

 the only current observable. The advance of the cyclone is now 

 fairly over the Cape Peninsula, and the usual sequence of falling 

 barometer, changes of wind, &c., follows. When the depression has 

 passed, the wind goes to the west or south-west, often blowing a 

 gale. 



Suddenly round goes the vane to south-east again, very often 

 blowing strong while the south-west wind gradually calms down at 

 the sea level. The storm has passed, as the dense atmosphere, too 

 heavy to reach Cape Point, testifies ; that peak experiencing the 

 general trade wind circulation of the atmosphere. But should the 

 vane back to north-west or north, no matter what its direction below, 

 another disturbance will follow. Hence we see how important a 

 station Cape Point might become in the prediction or fore-casting of 

 weather, more particularly the winter storms. 



I cannot pass over this portion of my paper without reference to 

 my sun-spot theory. It will no doubt be fresh in the minds of most 

 here that a paper upon this S'lbject was read before this Society in 

 July last, in which 1 shewed that a relationship existed between the 

 position* of the spots on the solar disk and the various storms which 



