On the night of the 24th of December, the same central vortex ascending
passed between Cape Clear and Liverpool.
On the 25th, at midnight, the vortex passed to the north of Liverpool:
its northerly progress being very slow, being confined for three days
between the parallel of Liverpool and its extreme northern limit in
latitude about 57d. The accompanying account of the weather will show
the result of a long-continued disturbance near the same latitude:
The Baltic, three days out from Liverpool, encountered the vortex on the
night of the 23d. On the morning of the 25th, very early, the gale
commenced at Liverpool, and did much damage. On the 26th, the vortex
attained its northern limit; but we have not been able to procure any
account of its effects to the northward of Liverpool, although there can
be but little doubt that it was violent on the coast of Scotland on the
26th; for the next day (27th) the vortex having made the turn, was near
the latitude of Liverpool, and caused a _tremendous_ storm, thus showing
a continued state of activity for several days, or a peculiarly
favorable local atmosphere in those parts. It is very probable, also,
that there was a conjunction of the central and inner vortex on the
27th. The inner vortex precedes the central in passing latitude 41d; but
as the mean radius of its orbit is less than that of the central, it
attains to a higher latitude, and has, consequently, to cross the path
of the central, in order again to precede it descending in latitude 41d.
As a very trifling change in the elements of the problem will cause
great changes in the positions of the vortices on the surface of the
earth, it cannot now be asserted that such a conjunction did positively
occur at that time; but, it maybe suspected, that a double disturbance
would produce a greater commotion, or, in other words, a more violent,
storm.
It is on this account, combined with other auxiliary causes, that the
vicinity of Cape Horn is so proverbially stormy, as well as for the low
standard of the barometer in that latitude, it is the stationary point
of the vortices in ordinary positions of the nodes and perigee of the
moon. We have already alluded to the fact, that none of the vortices
scarcely ever pass much beyond latitude 80d, and then only under
favorable circumstances, so that we ought to infer, that gales in high
latitudes should set from the poles towards the storms in lower
latitudes. This is, no doubt, the fact, but, nevertheless, a hard
southerly blow _may possibly_ occur in high northern latitudes, if a
storm should be raging very violently in a lower latitude on the
opposite side of the pole, the distance across the circle of 80d being
only about 1,400 miles. As the different vortices have a different limit
in latitude every year, the determination of this turning point is
obviously of great practical utility, as the fact may yet be connected
with other phenomena, so as to give us the probable character of the
polar ice at any assigned time. On this point we have more to say.