1876.] Report of the Meteorological Committee, 199 



by Professor Buys Ballot. This paper tended to establish 

 the value of gradients for the purposes of weather study. 

 N. 0. 2. A Paper by Capt. Toynbee on the curves of the Meteorological 

 Observations taken on board the steamers running between 

 Europe and America, showing that as on their voyages out- 

 ward they meet, and on their homeward route they run with, 

 cyclonic systems of wind which are crossing the Atlantic, the 

 succession of the phenomena is much more rapid in the 

 former than in the latter case. In fact, in some of the 

 homeward runs, the barometer is found to rise ivlien the wind 

 is southerly, thus showing that the ship is outstripping the 

 disturbance. 

 N. O. 3. Also by Capt. Toynbee, shows by a number of instances the 

 value of isobaric curves for the purposes of weather study, 

 and also draws the attention of sailors to the fact that the 

 tack on which they are from time to time (that is, the direction 

 in which they are sailing with regard to the wind) affects 

 very materially the rate of the changes that are taking place 

 in the indications of the meteorological instruments, the 

 barometer falling less rapidly, or even rising, when they are 

 on the starboard tack (that is, with the wind on the right), 

 and the converse when they are on the port tack, in the 

 Northern Hemisphere. 

 O. 13. Also by Capt. Toynbee, was undertaken in order to throw light 

 on the storm in which the ' City of Boston' is supposed to 

 have foundered. It is the most elaborate discussion of 

 Atlantic weather which has appeared, and it shows, inter 

 alia, how incomplete the materials are, and must be, for any 

 synoptic w T eather-charts extending over a wide stretch of 

 ocean. It illustrates the generation of the Atlantic winter 

 gales over the warm-water area on the prolongation of the 

 Gulf- stream, and proves that the centres of disturbances in 

 some cases move to the east or north-east, at a rate exceeding 

 30 miles an hour — a fact which is confirmed by the records of 

 the self-recording observatories in these islands, and by the 

 general results of the observations made over the whole of 

 Northern Europe. 

 In order to carry out the same method of investigation over a more 

 extensive field, the Office has undertaken the examination of the weather 

 of the Atlantic for the entire month of August 1873, when a very severe 

 cyclonic storm swept along the American coast and did enormous damage 

 in Nova Scotia. It is hoped that light will be thrown on the actual 

 formation of, and the subsequent modifications in, this serious storm, so 

 that some attempt may be made to solve the vexed problem of the precise 

 direction of the motion of the air in cyclones in reference to the position 



