going ship. They embark perhaps at some port within the tropics, with a scanty stock of clothing, and are carried in the course of their voyage into a cold and stormy region, exposed to all the severity of the weather; their sufferings become insupportable; the safety of the ship cannot be neglected, and the poor fellows are often detained aloft for hours, amid the violence of the elements, half-naked, and nearly dead with cold.

This is not a singular nor exaggerated picture; in every ship that approaches our coast from the south, in winter, the same exposures are encountered by some portion of their crews, who, less provident than others of their shipmates, have worn out or lost their woollen clothing. In truth the toils and sufferings of sailors on our coast in the inclement season, are inconceivable to those who, comfortably housed within their warm apartments, even there dread the storms that beat upon their windows, and think but little of the hapless sailor struggling, for days and nights, to guard their property from danger.

We insert a list of clothing, which may be considered a suitable supply for vessels, with the aggregate crews of twelve to eighteen hands. The quantities may be increased or diminished, in proportion to the number of the respective crews.

12 Coarse Woollen Round-about Jackets, each at

Monkey Jackets

$4,50

6,00

3,50

1,38

1,00

62

1,00

25

50

Woollen Comforters for the neck

The whole should be purchased by the owners, and charged to the account of the master, for whose responsibility he might receive, from the seamen, 25 per cent. profit on the cost. At the end of the voyage, an account of issues should be furnished to the owner, and the deficiencies replenished. The clothing should be tightly packed in linen covers with tobacco, and placed in a chest provided for the purpose. These details may, perhaps, seem trite to the casual reader; but to those who have witnessed the sufferings of sailors for want of comfortable clothing in bad weather, they will not appear wholly superfluous.

In conclusion, we have only to notice another and still more serious evil, which prevails almost universally in the merchant service-the omission of religious worship on the Sabbath. It has been often and truly said, that sailors are particularly susceptible of religious impressions, and fond of participating in those solemn ceremonies. In none but the larger of our national ships, are chaplains allowed; but this does not often prevent the observance of religious worship; there are always officers willingly disposed to read to the assembled crew an appropriate chapter, and a few prayers selected from the book of common prayer. And why cannot the masters of merchant ships follow this worthy example? How glorious would it be, if our hundred thousand seamen, scattered, as they always are, over the whole surface of the globe, could be assembled on each Sabbath day, in whatever clime they may chance to be, and under the shadow of their own spotless flag, offer to Almighty God the homage of their adoration and praise! Y.

ART. V.-MERCANTILE LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

LECTURES.

PROFESSOR OLMSTED'S LECTURES ON METEOROLOGY, AT CLINTON HALL.

WE Continue our sketches of Professor Olmsted's Lectures on Meteorology. In the December number of the Merchants' Magazine, we gave a full and accurate synopsis of the Introductory Lecture, on "the Connexion of Science and the Arts," and the three first of the course, namely, 1. Of the Atmosphere in General-2. Dew, Fog, and Clouds3. Of Rain; and now commence with

LECTURE IV.

Of Meteorological Observations, and of Winds.

THE lecturer remarked, that meteorology is pre-eminently a science founded on observation, and no reliance is to be placed on any theory in this science which is not derived from an extensive induction of facts. We require, moreover, that facts shall be observed and reported with the greatest possible degree of accuracy. Voluminous records of meteorological observations, kept for many years, are often found to be wholly useless, because their correctness cannot be depended on. Measures have recently been taken to procure a far greater degree of precision and uniformity. Whenever great accuracy has been employed in taking meteorological observations, it has been rewarded by the discovery of unexpected regularity in this department of nature. If, for example, we should take hourly observations on the thermometer for every day of the year, for several successive years, we should find the average temperature of each year differ scarcely at all from that of the others.

Within a few years a plan, originally proposed by Sir John Herschel, has been carried out in various countries, of taking simultaneous observations four times a year, namely, at the equinoxes and at the solstices. The observations with the various meteorological instruments, are made every hour for the whole twenty-four. This furnishes the means of comparing the condition of the atmosphere, as they exist at the same moment, in various parts of the globe, and promises to lead to curious and interesting results.

The principal instruments in use, are, the thermometer, for estimating the temperature of the air; the barometer, for ascertaining its weight and pressure; the hygrometer, for finding the amount and condition of the watery vapor contained in the atmosphere; and the rain gauge, for learning the amount of water precipitated from the atmosphere in the different forms of rain, snow, and hail. Our time will only permit us to point out the use of the two most important, namely, the thermometer and barometer. The thermometer being designed to measure the temperature of the air, it should be exposed where it is free from all accidental sources of heat, whether conducted or reflected from neighboring objects. If we make observations with the thermometer every hour for the whole twenty-four, and divide the sum of all the observations by their number, it will give us the average, or mean temperature, for that

day. As this, however, would be a tedious process, and as it is found that if we add the highest and lowest observations, and divide their sum by two, it gives very nearly the same mean, this method of obtaining the mean is generally adopted. The highest, or maximum temperature, is from two to three o'clock, P. M.; the minimum, at sun rise. Of all single observations, that at sunset comes nearest the mean.

The barometer gives us much useful information respecting the changes of the atmosphere, since it indicates, by the rise and fall of a column of mercury, every change in the atmospheric equilibrium; and such changes, when greater than ordinary, are connected with the phenomena of storms. The barometer fluctuates but little during the year in the torrid zone, the mercury never being far from thirty inches. In our own latitude, the fluctuations are much greater, rising, some times, as high as thirty-one inches, and sometimes falling below twenty-nine. An extraordinary rise of the barometer, (say to nearly thirty-one inches,) indicates that a storm is raging at some distant place; and when a rapid fall succeeds, we may infer that the storm is approaching. An extraordinary depression of the barometer attends the most violent tornadoes. Col. Reid, in his work on the "Law of Storms," mentions an instance that occurred in the West Indies, when the barometer, during a violent hurricane, fell to 26 50 inches. In general, a gradual rise of the barometer indicates fair weather, and a gradual fall, approaching foul weather. Since the barometer frequently gives notice of an approaching gale, and indicates the state and prospects of a storm while actually raging, it becomes a very valuable instrument to the mariner. No ship should ever sail without one.

Winds.-The lecturer observed, that the inconstancy of the wind is proverbial, and we should little expect to find that the winds are bound by fixed laws. It is characteristic of nature, however, that she is irregular in the small, but regular in the great. Amid ceaseless changes, uniform results are produced; and perfect symmetry in the midst of the most careless irregularity. Thus, while not a single branch of a tree seems to have the least relation to any other, the whole together make up the regalar forms exhibited in the majestic elm or oak. The same is the case with the winds. The more we study their phenomena, the more we find that they are governed by fixed laws, even in their wildest moods. The three most general laws respecting the winds of the globe, are the following:-1. That between the latitudes of thirty degrees on each side of the equator, the general tendency of the wind is westward. 2. That between the latitudes of thirty and sixty degrees, the general tendency is eastward. Beyond these latitudes, the winds are more irregular. 3. That those winds which blow towards the equator in both hemispheres, predominate over those which blow from the equator. Thus, in our latitude, northerly prevail over southerly winds.

Land and sea breezes, trade winds, and monsoons of the Indian Ocean, were particularly described and accounted for.

LECTURE V.

Of Tornadoes, Atlantic Gales, and the Law of Storms.

Tornadoes are characterized by marks of the greatest violence: houses are unroofed or torn in fragments, the largest trees are prostrated, and

a well-defined path is sometimes made through the heaviest forest, masses of timber are carried to a distance, and lighter substances even many miles. Most of the land tornadoes are of short duration. One that occurred in New Haven last summer, formed in a meadow, rushed over a plain in a path about sixty rods wide, bounded over a mountain nearly four hundred feet high, and lost itself in an extensive marsh on the other side of the mountain. All this was done in six minutes, and extended from west to east through about four miles, destroying every thing in its way. Similar tornadoes have occurred in various parts of our country, of which interesting accounts may be found in Silliman's Journal of Science. These tornadoes have a powerful upward motion. Sticks of timber and other heavy bodies are often lifted to a great height; and in a storm that occurred at Stowe, in Ohio, a few years since, a loaded cart was carried quite over a barn. Men have not unfrequently been raised to a considerable height by these tornadoes.

The trees and other bodies prostrated by these storms, fall inwards on the margin of the storm, towards the central track of the storm, while those trees which stood near the centre of the track, lie in the general course of the storm. Subordinate curves are formed, indicating a whirlwind action; but the marks of a general rotation are not as distinctly traced in these small tornadoes, as in the large gales that occur at sea. The velocity of the wind, within the vortex, cannot be less than one hundred miles per hour, (and is sometimes, probably, much greater,) while the forward motion of the storm is not more than thirty or forty miles an hour. We are much in the dark, as to what, all of a sudden, forms these storms, and endues them with such surprising violence.

The Atlantic gales have within a few years been studied with great attention, and with very interesting results. A large part of what is known respecting them, is due to our fellow citizen, Mr. William C. Redfield. By examining the log-books of a great number of ships that have been caught in these gales, he has traced, with great success and ability, the laws by which they are governed. Mr. Redfield has established the following facts by a very extensive and satisfactory induction:-that these gales commonly take their rise in the equatorial regions, to the southeastward of the West India islands-that they take a northwesterly direction towards the American coast, till they reach the latitude of thirty degrees; they then bear towards the northeast, and traverse along the coast of North America, and finally waste themselves in the Northern Atlantic. Mr. Redfield has farther proved, by comparing the courses of the wind, as taken by ships situated in different parts of the same storm, that these gales are great whirlwinds, and that they rotate always in one and the same direction, namely, from right to left, or against the sun; their forward motion is often very slow, while their rotary or whirlwind motion is very swift.

The laws of these gales, as established by the ingenious and laborious researches of Mr. Redfield, have received much confirmation from others who have followed him in the same course of investigation, particularly from Colonel Reid, now governor of Bermuda, who has published a work on the "Law of Storms." By an extensive comparison of facts, similar to that made by Mr. Redfield, Colonel Reid has arrived at the same conclusions, and these have been still farther confirmed by the testimony of the most experienced navigators. The ultimate object to which

these inquiries are directed is, to furnish to the mariner practical rules, by which he may be enabled so to manage his ship when overtaken by a gale, and so to steer his course, as to avoid the fury and danger of the storm. Several highly useful and practical rules of this kind, derived from the investigations of Mr. Redfield, are already established, and may be found in his published papers on this subject, and in Colonel Reid's work.

Although Professor Olmsted regards Mr. Redfield and Colonel Reid as having satisfactorily explained the laws which govern these great storms, yet he thinks we are here, as in the case of the smaller tornadoes which occur on land, very much in the dark with respect to the ultimate causes of these phenomena-the causes which first produce the whirlwind, and afterwards maintain its violence. Heat, more than any other known cause, disturbs the atmospheric equilibrium, and produces winds; but the lecturer regards all attempts hitherto made, to explain the manner in which heat acts to produce the peculiar effects exhibited in tornadoes and hurricanes, as unsuccessful.

LECTURE VI.

Of Thunder Storms.

To Dr. Franklin is universally conceded the honor of having first established the identity between electricity and lightning. This he did by actually drawing the lightning from the clouds by means of a kite, and proving that it possessed all the properties of the electric fluid, even to the charging of a jar.

This discovery led to very extravagant notions respecting the agency of electricity in the phenomena of nature. Not only thunder storms, but storms of every sort, and all other meteorological phenomena, as dew, fog, rain, hail, and luminous meteors, were at once ascribed to the same universal agent. Indeed, the arcana of nature were now held to be all unlocked, and to electricity were successively ascribed the tides, the motions of the heavenly bodies, and the functions of animal and vegetable life. This propensity to employ electricity as the agent by which to explain all mysterious things in nature, not otherwise accounted for, has infected natural philosophy even to our own times, and many now imagine they have sufficiently explained any unusual or wonderful occurrence in the natural world, by calling it "an electrical phenomena."

In thunder storms, we are presented with the following leading facts. It is found by experiments, (made by raising kites to the region of the clouds,) that all insulated clouds are highly charged with electricitythat the electricity of a cloud is sometimes positive, and sometimes negative that even a fog is often highly electrified. Electricity is strongest when hot weather succeeds a series of rainy days, or when wet weather succeeds a series of dry and hot days. Thunder storms usually occur in the hottest seasons of the year, and after mid-day. They are more frequent and violent in hot than in cold countries, and are especially violent in volcanoes.

In our explanation of the foregoing facts, we must consider, that here are two different classes of phenomena to be accounted for: first,