Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 10.djvu/69

Rh 729.2 millimetres; on the 27th, at 8, 729.8 millimetres; on the 28th, at 8 , 747.3 millimetres.

With the moon in a like position with respect to the earth, there occurred, December 15-18, 1873 and 1854, just as on the 21st and 22d of November, a sudden and great fall of the barometer, accompanied by a fearful storm. In 1873, on the evening of the 13th, and in 1854, on the morning of the 14th, the moon was in the descending node.. The moon's declination in 1873, at 3 of the 15th, and in 1854 at 7  of the 16th, was 12° south. At Emden, in 1873, the barometer fell on the 15th and 16th, from 768 to 745 millimetres, or 23 millimetres. At Skudesnäs the fall on the 15th and 16th December amounted to 25 millimetres; at Stockholm, on the 16th, to 20 millimetres; at St. Petersburg, from the 15th to the 17th, to 30 millimetres. The track of the centre of this storm entirely agrees with that of the storm of November 14th-22d. At 1 of December 14th, we find at Washington, North Carolina, a barometric minimum of 744.2 millimetres, and by 7h. 35m. this had advanced as far as Halifax. Here, at the time specified, the barometer had fallen to 735 millimetres. On the 14th, at 4h. 35m., the barometric minimum had passed in a northeast direction over Newfoundland, crossing the Atlantic Ocean. At Thorshavn, where, on the 14th, at 8, the barometer had stood at 757.4 millimetres, it had on the morning of the 16th fallen to 731.9. At Aberdeen, the barometer on the morning of the 16th stood at 735 millimetres.

In 1854, on the morning of December 17th, the barometer at Emden showed 752.2 millimetres; it then fell till noon on the 18th, when it was 731.1 millimetres, and then began to rise again. At the beginning of the fall of the barometer, a storm from the southwest set in, which increased in force till it became a hurricane. The rain which fell during the storm amounted to 18.9 millimetres.

At Cologne, at 3h. 41m., December 18, 1854, the barometer showed 726.6 millimetres—a barometric minimum never before observed there since 1830.

In 1854 the track of the storm-centre traversed Northern France and Germany: thus, as on November 22d,it was more southerly than in 1873.

Such concordant atmospheric phenomena as these, when the moon occupies the same position relating to the earth, might be quoted at great length. The moon, as it governs ebb and flow, so too determines oceanic currents, and, by means of these, atmospheric currents. From this it follows that the influence of the moon upon that portion of the atmosphere which overlies the continents must be less than that upon the supra-oceanic atmosphere.—Gaea.