clear sky, and N. W. wind of
yesterday, to-day, and, perhaps, to-morrow, are the posterior or dry side.
When a storm clears off from the N. W. it is not _over_, it is, perhaps,
_just begun_; and, inasmuch as it storms again, very soon after the wind
changes back from the N. W. to the southward, in winter, our weather then
is pretty much all _storms_.

The statement of this claim seems so absurd that it may appear like
injustice to make it. But gyration can not be made out without it, and it
is evident in the extract quoted above; in the claim that the winter
northers of the Mexican Gulf are parts of passing storms; and clearly and
unequivocally advanced as a distinct proposition, as follows:

"1. The body of the gale usually comprises an area of rain or foul
weather, together with another, and, perhaps equal, or greater, area of
fair or bright weather." (Am. Jour. of Science, vol. xlii. p. 114.)

Now, in the first place, we must distinguish between a storm and fair
weather, before we can tell what the former is, and it is difficult to
assent to a theory which explains what a S. E. storm of _twelve hours'_
continuance is, by including _two or three days of succeeding N. W. fair
weather wind_, as a part of it. There is no proportionate relation as to
_time_, nor any relation as to _qualities_, or the attending conditions of
the atmosphere, nor any conceivable _connection_, except the hypothetical
one of _gyration_, between the two winds.

And, in the second place, it is true, and Mr. Redfield is well aware of
the fact, that winds often blow for many days from the N. E., S. W., or N.
W., without any preceding or succeeding winds to which they have any
discoverable relation. If, therefore, truth would justify Mr. Redfield in
including the fair weather wind, a difficulty would remain which his
theory does not cover or explain.

No American, except Mr. Redfield, has been able to discover satisfactory
evidence of the gyration of storms, by actual careful observation, or a
careful unbiased collation of the observation of others. Professor Coffin
is reported to have read to the Scientific Association, at their Buffalo
meeting, a paper, confirmatory, in part, but I have not been able to see
it. The tracks of tornados have been searched as with candles. When they
have been narrow, from forty to eighty rods, their action has been
substantially similar, and, although, as we have herein before stated,
some irregularities have bee