Page:The National geographic magazine, volume 1.djvu/70

 of wind and change of conditions at about the time of lowest barometer, are here illustrated most impressively. Such changes are, of course, to be expected and guarded against in every storm, and sailors have long ago summed them up, to store away in memory for practical use when occasion demands, in the well-known lines,—

One thing to which attention is particularly called is the fact that storms of only ordinary severity are likely, upon reaching the coast, to develop greatly increased energy. As has been already pointed out, there can be no doubt but that this is especially so in a storm of this kind, where the isobars are elongated in a north and south direction. The accompanying Barometer Diagram, if studied in connection with the Track Chart and the Weather Chart for March 11th, illustrates very clearly this deepening of the depression at the storm center. The formation and persistency off Block Island of a secondary storm center of such energy as was developed in this case, however, it would seem wholly impossible to have foretold, and a prediction to that effect made under similar circumstances would probably prove wrong in at least nine cases out of ten. But it may be safely said that the establishment of telegraphic signal stations at outlying points off the coast is a matter of great importance, not only to our extensive shipping interests, but to the people of all our great seaboard cities as well. To the northward, telegraphic reports from such stations would furnish data by which to watch the movement of areas of high barometer, upon which that of the succeeding "low" so largely depends; and to the southward, to give warning of the approach and progress of the terrific hurricanes which, summer after summer, bring devastation and destruction along our Gulf and Atlantic coasts, and of which this great storm is an approximate example and a timely reminder. In this connection, also, there is another important result to be gained scientific research and practical inventive genius, advancing hand in hand for the benefit of mankind, have discovered not only the laws governing the formation of the dense banks of fog that have made the Grand Banks dreaded by navigators but also the means by which certain facts may be observed, telegraphed, charted, and studied a thousand miles away, and the occurrence of fog predicted with almost unfailing