A NEW VIEW OF THE WEATHER QUESTION. 285 



such a storm happens, and is always liable to happen, somewhere about this 

 time, it is no sign that the "equinox" has anything to do with it. Storms 

 are liable to generate at all times, one may occur at this particular time, and 

 that, too, in merely certain localities, when it is perfectly fair at others. This 

 being the case it seems absurd to thus connect it with the sun passing over a 

 certain imaginary line. 



LXXII. Rain and snow are essentially the same. This need not be told 

 the initiated, yet there are people who think that the Signal officer has made an 

 error when it is said that "it will probably rain," and it snows instead. It is a 

 mere difference between a few degrees of temperature, and perhaps local temper- 

 ature at that; if warm it will rain, if cold it will snow. 



LXXIII. It is sometimes remarked, that it feels like rain or snow, but that 

 it is too cold. In this case the clouds that contain this moisture are present, but 

 if warmer a little beyond, they will pass along to that warmer spot. The strongest 

 force, whether it be heat, cold, or wind, will predominate ; the merely local must 

 (generally) give way for the general or extended conditions. 



LXX1V. When low extends over a large territory, or we are in the center 

 of a concentrated one, the rain will come down straight or nearly so ; but when 

 the center of low is to one side and a fierce wind is rushing in toward it, carrying 

 heavy clouds along, the rain will come down at an angle ; the more fierce the 

 more obtuse the angle at which the rain will fall, and sometimes the wind is so 

 powerful as to make it come down almost horizontal. 



LXXV. Trade winds and hurricanes we have not much to do with in this 

 latitude and longitude, yet they, with other conditions, must obey the general 

 law of air seeking an equilibrium. It would seem from what we know of the 

 laws of storms in general, that the ' ' trades " should, as they do, prevail in the 

 latitudes nearest the equator, and that hurricanes should predominate in the same 

 localities. 



LXXVI. The manner in which a fierce wind travels has been much com- 

 mented upon. It is said that it travels, as it were, in epicycles — going compara- 

 tively straight or in an elongated curve for quite a distance, then taking a sudden 

 turn in the shape of a small circle, as is sometimes the case with dust in the 

 street. This, however, does not accord with the general law, though the air, like 

 the heavier material water, is evidently turned in this manner by local inertia. 

 The more fierce the wind the more compact and the more it is liable to be 

 deflected or swept around in a circle, the same as water, by any resistance that it 

 may meet with. Its inertia of speed forces it on — the inertia of fixed objects, 

 even though small, must cause some compromise — must be overcome. 



LXXVII. Tornadoes look black, and oftentimes much resemble a huge 

 serpent rushing over the ground. It would seem to be comparatively easy to 

 account for this. The fiercer the wind the more condensed, and as it moves 

 over the earth at the rate of a hundred miles or so an hour, it will necessarily 

 take up with it much loose earth, dust, etc., whereby darkness of color is given 

 to the whole mass. Then as to its serpentine form, the very compactness will 



