day of such Equinox, be some 50° of her orbit distant from her place of perigee. But still I considered it ought to be marked at least as a "black letter" day in my printed list of warnings.

As the Nautical Magazine is the most valuable, as it is the most authentic means of recording such events, I will mention that so unusually high was the tide at Sheerness on the 23rd December last, that the northern end of the dockyard wharf (by Garrison Point) was fairly under water, and the waves rolled along it into the "lower Camber;" while I saw the seas make a clean sweep over the Sheerness pier. The low lands of Sheppy, &c., were all under water; some near Chatham had nearly six feet water upon them. The same, with slight diminution, occurred also on the 20th January.

So great has been the astonishment of the public (as evidenced in scores of letters) at the extent of my supposed calculations which could lead to such accuracy in predicting to the very day, that I feel it incumbent on me to plainly disavow anything of the sort. Perhaps the mind has no less fatiguing exercise in the vigilance (by day and night) and forethought and consideration which is necessary in order to support a man when introducing a not very prepossessing theory (in its early aspect) to public notice. But, unlike astronomy, meteorology has in its present speculations to deal principally with vague, unponderable, and incommensurable elements of disturbance, such as heat and electricity. Whence, then, the need of much "calculation?" I would not have my name, humble as it is, coupled with the charlatanerie of assumptions. My avocation, through life nearly, has been to assist in the development of truths, and not to retard their advance by professional maskings and mystifications.

Now, Sir, were I to announce to the world that the sun would rise on the 12th December next, no one would accuse me of credulity, because the rising of the sun is a recognised law of nature. But when, at the end of January last, I read in the Times that the high tides of the 21st had materially damaged certain sea walls in some parts of the Medway near Chatham, I thought it no more than a duty to send to one of the most respected of the daily papers my advice, attested by name, &c., that proprietors (by being deluded into a notion that because tides had been destructive in the present there was a chance of immunity therefrom in the next winter) should not neglect the necessary repairs in the coming summer, because a very dangerous gale and another fearful tide would certainly occur on the 12th December next. Insertion, however, was tacitly refused,-nor can we wonder. But what the editor would most likely consider to be an absurd presumption on the part of any mortal, may be really based solely (as in the case of the sun's rising) on another, although newly discovered, law of nature,-for such it is.

In order that my confiding friends among your readers may not deem such a prediction or statement presumptuous, permit me to explain.

The new moon will happen in the precise hour in which the moon

attains her most southern declination, viz., on the 10th December, 1863, at 8h. p.m. Whatever influence the merely new moon has generally in raising the tides will be at its height on the second day after. This "second day after" will be her precise period of perigee, even within three hours. The sun's semidiameter on the date of his perigee (30th December) will be 16' 18-2'; but on the 12th (the second day after new moon) his semidiameter will be 16′ 17.2",-therefore he will on the 12th be within 1" of his perigee, as shown by his greatest semidiameter. Now let any man tell me what other influence can be adduced to coincide for that period, so as to increase the chance of the most destructive storm and the most dangerous tide with which this earth, without miracle, can be visited?

That of

So extraordinary were the gales between the 16th and 23rd January (as I widely forewarned) that I request the favour of being allowed to give a diagram in illustration. Whether we regard the intensity of the gales or their duration, one of them will henceforward rank with the most painfully prominent storms of this era. October, 1859, will long be known as the "Royal Charter Gale," but this of 20th January last quite equals it in intensity and in interest, accompanied, as it was, by such extraordinary tides on all parts of the coast. Even in Shetland, where the rise and fall is trifling, it was felt in astonishment. When one of my sons delivered my warning to the fishermen there, it was of course received with respect; but when the tide rose, their amazement knew no bounds. In their simplicity their awe of him was ludicrous.

But that which preeminently ought to render it memorable is the extraordinary "luminosity" already spoken of (and if I stretch my limit as to space in the Nautical to the very extreme, pray forgive me). At 10h. a.m. of the 20th January, when the velocity of wind, measured by cup and dial anemometer, was nearly seventy miles an hour. I noticed on reaching the quarter-deck that a peculiar light (I think I once saw a somewhat similar light off Cape St. Mary, Madagascar) seemed to shine upon all the N. W. quarter of the horizon. The town of Southend, on the Essex shore (not by any means a prominent object at Sheerness), was so plainly visible that its terraces of houses were startlingly conspicuous. Everything also on the nearer Isle of Grain seemed to "stand out" in the almost spectral glow, which prevailed at that part of the sky only. To heighten the contrast, shreds of highly electric racing fragments of fleecy or hairy clouds of a deep, dark colour arrested the attention from their singular filamentary density. These clouds could only, from their velocity, have been a hundred or two yards in altitude. Behind them one would have supposed the sun to have been momentarily "muffled," so bright rather than light was the appearance as compared with the gloom of dense masses of clouds in all other directions.

Now, Sir, reference to the diagram will show that 10h. a.m. was just before or at the very moment of the height of the fury of the storm (this height lasting for nine hours! for it was not till seven p.m. that the wind abated).

Much perplexed during the day at the singular luminosity referred to, and striving to reconcile it with any previous experiences, I recalled to mind again and again the fact of one part alone of the heavens being then so free from clouds, excepting the electric scud referred to. But during my musings in the evening of the same day, it occurred to me that it must have been an aurora borealis of such brilliancy as to have been plainly visible by daylight. Once satisfied as to this there was little difficulty in tracing the connexion between Sir John Herschel's "polar currents" and their occasional " downrushes," as quoted by Admiral Fitzroy. If ever the eyes of man beheld such a "polar downrush" mine did on the 20th January last, and therefore I call that tremendous gale an "auroral storm."

That the worst of a gale is generally felt an hour or two after the barometer has passed its greatest depression is an accepted rule among sailors. In this case it will be seen that the lowest barometer of the gale happened at 6h. a.m. of the 20th, when it had fallen to 28.87 in. (accurately corrected). By ten o'clock it had risen to 29.05 in.

The given diagram further illustrates certain points which tell weightily as to the value of my lunar system (as I am getting the habit of calling it). For, if your readers will kindly notice, the heavy gale of the 16th January occurred on one of my "lunar days;" and its distinctness in character is worthy of remark, for in it the wind was N.E.: in the gale of the 18th, 19th, and 20th, and part of 21st, the wind throughout was W.N.W.: while in the succeeding gale of the 22nd (the next lunar day) the wind was from S.W. Such distinct corroborations of a theory cannot be expected in every month; but the past three months have been of so peculiar a nature that all the energies of accessories to atmospheric disturbance have been noted under advantageous circumstances, and their attributes stored for future use. The season has, I have truly said, been a trying one.

It would have been a triumph if a careful and elaborate collation of reports from a whole continent had resulted in the detection of a lunar weather system. But a still greater triumph is it for one uniaided observer at a single station to have accomplished what I submit is now proved to be so great a discovery.

Allow me, Sir, to congratulate your readers (and myself too?) upon the great success I have achieved,—an advantage not merely to the present generation, but one which, when I am in my grave, will be acknowledged by posterity.

I have, &c.,

To the Editor of the Nautical Magazine.

S. M. SAXBY, R.N.

Explanation of the Table recording the Barometer and Anemometer readings of the Great Storm of the 18th, 19th, and 20th January, 1863.

The

upper table records the barometer readings.

The lower table records the anemometer readings, the figures representing

miles per hour.

NO. 3.-VOL. XXXII.

X

The continuous line significs readings at Sheerness. The dotted line, readings at Dingle in Ireland.

On the 16th, at 10h. p.m., the lunar stitial colure. Wind N.E. at Dingle. 17th-Wind N.E., N.N.E., and West.

18th-Wind W.N.W., 5h. a.m., moon in perigee.
19th-Wind N.N.W. to North. New moon 4h. p.m.
20th-Wind N.N.W. to W.N.W., at 10h. a.m. aurora.

tide.

21st-Wind N.N.W.

22nd-Wind S. W. Lunar Equinox.

23rd-Wind S.W.

Very high

EVENINGS AT HOME AT THE NAUTICAL CLUB.-The Great Eastern's Rock-Loch Lomond Tourists-Condition of Naval Construction—The Alabama and Hatteras—Federal and Confederal Supplies-Reminiscences of Charleston, &c.

Have any of us (asked the Chairman in opening proceedings) received any account of the preciso position of the rock on which the Great Eastern grounded when entering Long Island Sound. Nothing like it appears in the American survey. The N.E. rips are mentioned, which show nothing. But a single bearing and distance of Montauk Lighthouse when the Great Eastern was on shore, would be all that is wanted. The Chairman's remarks elicited nothing but a hope that some information for his own sake would have been sent to the Nautical by the commander of the big ship.

In the way of charts, observed the Commodore, he was glad to see those of the British Admiralty leading the way of all other governments both in the number and importance of their publications, but he hoped never to see them printed on worse paper that at present. Not only are foreign shores cared for, but even those of our inland lakes, and the northern tourist may now enjoy his voyage even through Loch Lomond free from the sunken dangers with which it is infested, for the government survey of this most interesting of Scottish lakes is published, wherein all sunken rocks, shoals, and banks, are accurately delineated. It is, moreover, stated that Robert Hunter, Esq., sheriff of the counties of Dumbarton and Bute, at whose instance the survey by Captain Otter, R.N., was made, has also since the preparation of the chart, with the most praiseworthy liberality subscribed himself, and has induced Sir James Colquhoun, of Luss; Mr. Smollett, of Bonhill; Mr. Brown, of Balloch; Mr. A. Orr Ewen, of Levenbank, the Dumbartonshire and Edinburgh and Glasgow Railways, and the Loch Lomond Steamboat Companies, likewise to subscribe for the erection of beacons and buoys on the various sunken rocks, shoals, and banks dangerous to the navigation. These beacons and buoys, which were executed and laid down by Messrs. Bell and Campbell, of Bon