IN EUROPE DURING OCTOBER, NOVEMBER, AND DECEMBER 1863. 195 



four storms passed across this disturbed area, which was generally about 1900 

 miles in length by 1400 in breadth. 



Storm I. on the 28th October (Plate XIX.), embraced the British Islands and 

 the west of Norway, having its centre at Elgin, where the pressure was 29-41. On 

 the 29th (Plate XIX.), the area of low barometer now included the north-west 

 of France, the north of Germany, and the whole of Denmark and Scandinavia. 

 The centre of the storm was near Christiansund, in Norway, and on the follow- 

 ing day had passed out of the map by the North Cape. 



Storm II. had advanced so far by the morning of the 29th October (Plate XIX.) 

 that its centre had all but approached the west of Ireland, where the pressure was 

 28-56, being nearly an inch lower than the depression which accompanied the 

 previous storm. On the 30th (Plate XIII.), it had arrived at Shetland, the lowest 

 pressure being 29-44. At that moment the whole atmospheric system of Europe, 

 to use a familiar illustration, appeared to be swinging round Warsaw as a centre, 

 in the direction of the motion of the hands of a watch, so that in the south and 

 south-west barometers were everywhere rising, whilst in the north and north- 

 east they were falling. On the 31st (Plate XIV.), it had advanced eastward to 

 Christiania. At the same time the isobarometric 28 -9 had greatly extended its 

 area, and a new depression (II. b) had been formed in its western part, due west 

 of the former, and contiguous to it. On the 1st November (Plate XV.), the iso- 

 barometric 28 - 9 had contracted to one-half of its former dimensions, the two 

 depressions in the centre had united and advanced a considerable way to the 

 north-east ; and on the 2d (Plate XVI.), it may be observed further to the north- 

 east, and to be now leaving Europe by way of Lapland. 



Storm III. had its centre, on the 1st November (Plate XV.), apparently within 

 a hundred miles of the west of Ireland, where the pressure was 28-9. On the 2d 

 (Plate XVI.), it had travelled east to Liverpool. On the 3d (Plate XIX.), it had 

 continued its eastern course, and was now on the west of Jutland. At the same 

 time the area of the storm had contracted to a fourth part of its former diameter ; 

 and the lowest pressure of the centre, instead of 28 - 9, was only 29-3. It was 

 thus giving unmistakable signs of wasting away, and next morning (Plate XIX.), 

 it had quite disappeared — a wide space between the barometric lines at the 

 entrance of the Gulf of Finland being all that remained to show where it had 

 died out. 



The general features of the other storms were similar to those already de- 

 scribed. The storm of the 10th and 11th November, and the storm in the begin- 

 ning of December, had, however, certain peculiar features of their own to which 

 I shall briefly advert. 



The chart for the 11th November (Plate XVIII.) is the most remarkable of the 

 charts, and the more so if compared with that of the 10th (Plate XVII.). Though 

 the barometer fell a little to the N.E. at the head of the Gulf of Bothnia, yet the 



VOL. XXIV. PART I. 3 G 



