Cyclones. 341 



restored in the English Channel. It then crossed the North 

 Sea, and descended upon the coasts of Norway, where its 

 energy was almost expended on the 27th. 



The "Royal Charter Storm " was quickly followed by a 

 companion-cyclone, which extended its ravages across the 

 British Isles on the lst-2nd of November. On November 1st, 

 this storm's centre crossed Ireland to the north of England, 

 and then, on November 2nd, appeared to diminish rapidly in its 

 strength as it overspread the North Sea, progressing towards 

 Denmark. It appears from the long-continued observations of 

 Mr. Stevenson near Berwick, and of Dr. Lloyd at Dublin, that 

 this track is the most frequent course of British cyclones. 

 They chiefly traverse the northern portions of the British 

 Islands, from south-west towards north-east, from west 

 towards east, or even occasionally from north-west towards 

 south-east. 



Communications received at the Paris Observatory from a 

 great number of the chief towns and seaports of Europe, 

 enabled Mr. Marie Davy to anticipate the arrival of a furious 

 gale in England and France, on December lst-2nd, 1863, as early 

 as the 27th and 28th of November. All the north coasts of 

 France were warned upon the 30th of November. The first to 

 be exposed to the fury of this storm, the British Isles were 

 warned of its approach on December 1st. Rapid communications 

 were effected on the same day along the coasts of France. 

 The centre of the storm was advanced as far as Liverpool on 

 December 2nd, and Cherbourg for the first time experienced the 

 full force of the wind. Telegraphic messages, despatched from 

 Paris on this day, reached Toulon, Genoa, Civita Vecchia, and 

 Palermo, in time to prevent accidents to shipping in the 

 Mediterranean ; but no answers to these messages could be 

 returned, as the telegraphic wires were, in many places, broken . 

 by the violence of the wind, which raged in France throughout 

 December 2nd. The admirable success of these arrangements 

 could only afterwards be learned through the columns of the 

 public papers. The wind was first felt in its full force at 

 Cherbourg at ten in the morning, at Toulon, near Marseilles, at 

 half-past three, and at Genoa at half-past seven in the evening 

 of the same day. Strasbourg, and other places in France at a 

 ■considerable distance from the central track, experienced no 

 ■commotion in the atmosphere until the following day. 



The advantage to science arising from the judicious col- 

 lection of a wide range of meteorological facts by the use of 

 the electric telegraph, is at least as great as the services thus 

 immediately rendered to navigation and to trade. On the 

 charts daily published in the " bulletins" of the Paris Obser- 

 vatory, the barometric lines of equal pressure cross the 



