the NW. coast of Scotland. Fig. 32, for the 15th, shows but little change of pressure over central Europe, but a fresh disturbance has appeared off the west coast of Ireland, causing the winds to back to S. and SE., and blow with the force of a gale. Fig. 33, for the 16th, shows us this second disturbance in the position of its

predecessor of the 14th, but pressure having given way over Norway the conditions are altered, and the region of highest barometrical readings is transferred to Spain.

I have hitherto spoken of the cases when pressure is highest in the west, south, and east respectively, but the anticyclone must sometimes lie to the northward of

us, and then, if ever, should the disturbances advance from the eastward. Such a movement is, however, ex

cessively rare in these latitudes, though this is not the case with the tropical hurricanes or cyclones, which at first move from the Eastward. There are, however, some principles which have not yet been thoroughly explained, and which are antagonistic to the development of such a motion in the storms of our part of the Temperate zone. I shall hereafter say a few words as to the causes which have been adduced to account for the motion of storms, but it will suffice, at this juncture, to remark that the motion of cyclones round anticyclones will not by any means account for all the motions which have been noticed in our storms.

The typical cyclone of November 29, 1874, figs. 19-22, pp. 83-85, to which reference has frequently been made, did not skirt round the region of high pressure on our charts, but travelled directly towards it. In this case, however, as in many others, it is possible that a study of the weather over more extensive charts, like those of Captain Hoffmeyer, might throw more light on this question of motion than we are at present able to obtain.

While discussing the motion of storms, it may be interesting to trace the path of a very erratic disturbance which visited these islands in April 1872, and the course of which has been followed out with the aid of the continuous records at our self-recording observatories. The following seven charts (figs. 34-40) show the successive

positions of the central disturbance, and fig. 41 gives its track for the entire period. It came in over Ireland and retreated along its own path again. That it did not advance as far as the Strait of Dover is clearly shown by the records at Kew, and that it passed first on one side and then on the other of Falmouth, is indicated by the records at that observatory, which prove by the direction of the shifts of wind, on the same principles as are explained in Chapter V., that the path of the centre lay first on the southern and then on the northern side of the station.

This storm presents us also with the rare phenomenon of an advance from the eastward. As far as we can at present form an opinion, this latter condition depends on circumstances of pressure far outside the area of these islands or even of that embraced by our weather charts. It is needless to say that such a storm as that just described afforded a striking instance of failure of warnings, as will be explained in Chapter VIII., p. 144.

The storms of which I have been treating have all exhibited motion more or less rapid, and in various directions, but it sometimes happens that areas of low pressure are stationary for two or three days together, nearly to the same extent as the anticyclone already noticed (figs. 23-26, p. 86). It is a remarkable fact as regards these islands that there are certain localities which apparently exert an attraction on these systems, and so retard their motion for a time. This is most strikingly the case with the region situated at the entrance of the