IN EUROPE DURING OCTOBER, NOVEMBER, AND DECEMBER 1863. 203 



side, the pressure diminished. It may not unaptly be compared to the watershed 

 in physical geography, since from it the winds flowed away towards those places 

 where the pressure was less. It sometimes extended over the Continent from 

 N. to S., sometimes from E. to W., and sometimes in other directions ; frequently 

 it curved through Europe in a very irregular manner, forming the boundary line 

 between a disturbed area in the north and another in the south ; occasionally it 

 was broken up into different parts ; and more rarely it was concentrated in one 

 locality, forming an area of high barometer approaching a circular form. In this 

 last case, which happened on the 5th December in western Europe (Plate XXI.), 

 and on several other occasions, the wind was always observed gently whirling 

 out of the area of high barometer, in the direction of the motion of the hands of a 

 watch — being the opposite direction to that assumed by the wind when it blows 

 round and in towards an area of low pressure. 



Storms of the Mediterranean. 



The observations from Austria, Turkey, Greece, Russia, and Syria are too 

 scanty to enable us to trace satisfactorily any , of the storms which occurred 

 there during the period. There is enough, however, to show that the conclusions 

 which may be drawn from those storms which passed over northern and western 

 Europe cannot safely be applied to the storms of the Mediterranean, as regards 

 their form, the direction from which they come, and the course generally pursued 

 by them. 



App. 



VOL. xxiv. part i. 3 I 



