170 
being to connect the disturbance of the needle observed in 
these gales with that known to exist during the appearance 
of Aurora. 
The Author then proceeded to show the tracks of several 
storms observed in, or in the neighbourhood of, the British 
Islands, from whieh it appeared that they are divided into 
two classes, one pursuing courses which generally lie to the 
west of Ireland, and run in a north-north-east direction ; and 
storms of the other class passing nearly along the parallel of 
latitude. The storms which pass in a north-north-east direc- 
tion were referred to the north-east branch of the Gulf 
Stream, and instances were given in which storms, from a 
movement in a direction a little north of east, had, at the 
point where the north-east current of the Gulf Stream 
diverges from the main body, suddenly changed their course 
and proceeded in a direction parallel to such north-east 
current. This was shown to be consistent with the observed 
tracks of hurricanes in other parts of the world, such tracks 
being usually found near the margin of, and moving parallel 
to, the great ocean currents. 
Numerous instances were given of cyclones following each 
other in quick succession over nearly the same tracks ; also of 
two cyclones running into one another, and one instance in 
which a cyclone divided into two. 
Mr. Carrington’s Papers in the monthly notices of the 
Royal Astronomical Society upon the connexion between the 
period of the solar spots and their distribution in latitude, and 
also upon their drift upon the sun’s disk, were then referred 
to, and it was shown from the Greenwich observations be- 
tween 1847 and 1857, that as the latitude of the solar spots 
increased, the average of the tracks of the storms moved 
north of Greenwich. 
The great hurricanes on record from 1760 to the present 
time were examined, and it was found that, with the excep- 
tion of a number of storms which arc recorded in the years 
