Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 16.djvu/318

300 of the problems raised by a study of cyclone observations. In the domain of practical "nautical meteorology," and in its applications to the handling of ships on the outer circles of revolving gales, it is especially yet to be sifted in the light of the most exact "simultaneous" observations. The international weather-charts, illustrating the exacter forms of marine storms, show us that they assume very eccentric shapes (see chart, p. 305), and consequently develop variant wind systems. On the liquid expanse of the stormy North Atlantic, crowded with the steamers and sailing-ships of all nations, there exists the finest field for this investigation to be found on the globe. When these vessels become "floating observatories," rendering up accounts of their daily simultaneous weather experience, it will be comparatively an easy matter to set for ever at rest the yet disputed questions of the phenomena of cyclones, and to formulate rules for maneuvering ships so as to elude their crushing forces.



The birth, life, and death of storms; their translations from continent to continent, with the times and directions they take in such transits; the thermometric, baric, and wind conditions around the globe at various parallels; the distribution and amount of rainfall and snow-fall; the laws of our great "hot waves" and "cold waves," with many