Shipping.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 372, 17 May 1861, Page 2

Shipping.

ENTERED INWARDS.

May 14. Surprise, 15, Games, from Picton, in ballast May 15.—Rapid, 20, Blackmore, from Pakawau. May 15.—Ann, 18, Eure, from the Waitapu. 4 passengers. May 16.—Odd l?el!ow, cutter, 15, Dellow, from the Pelorua. ENTERED OUTWARDS. May 14.—City of Nelson, 30, Hooper, for the Wairau. Passengers—Mr. and Mrs. Norgrove, 7 children, and 3 others. . May 15.—Gipsy, 30, K'Cann, for Takaka, in ballast. Passengers—Messrs. Askew and Yoik. May 16.—Surprise, 16,- Games, for Picton. 3 passengers. May 16.—Jane, 30, Jacobsen, for the Croixelles, in ballast. May 16.—Rapid, 20, ;Blackmore, for Takaka, in ballast. ' , IMPORTS. | Per Rapid, from Pakawau -. 16 tons coals, 2 bags samples of do. Lewthwaite. Per Ann, from the Waitapu: 3300 feet timber, i Askew; 6 empty casks, Hooper and Co. ;16 ozs. gold, Order. Per Odd Fellow, from the Pelorus: 2500 feet timber, Mackay; 2000 do. Phillips; 25 railway sleepers, Order, 6 pigs, Dellow. EXPORTS. Per City of Nelson, for the Wairau ■ 1 case merchandise, 1 do whiskey, 2 do, wine, 1 hhd a1e,.l chest tea, 5J tons flour, 2 casks apples, Edwards and Co. ; 1 case sundries, 1 truss, 8 boxes candles, 1 case starch, 1 cask oatmeal, 12 tins white lead. 3 kegs rice, Wilkie; 2 ploughs, 1 bag biscuits, 4 pkgs sundries, 1 case axes, 8 ovens, 1 barrel gunpowder, 2 tins nails, 1 bag biscuits, 3 cases sundries, 2 mattresses, Buxton ; 26 boxes, 14 pkgs effects, Noigrove; 3 cases furniture, 2 pkgs, Symons and Co.; 6 bags lime, Master; 10 bags oats, 2 do. wheat. j Per Surprise, for Picton : 2 cases geneva, 1 do. old torn, 2 bags sugar, 1 pkg. 2 cases sundries 4 bags sugar, 2 boxes candles, 1 cheese, 1 case port wine, 4 kegs butte", 30 ft>3. tobacco, 1 bag rice, 1 1 ton-flour, 6 chimney pots, 4 iron stays, 16 sacks oats, Symons and Co., 1 ton potatoes, Levic. THE SYMPTOMS OF A GALE. A letter addressed to the editor of the Times and signed Robert EHtzroy, says— Sir,— A letter in the Times this day from Mr. Jackson, of Harlepool, not only requires some vemarks from me (as the meteorological officer acting under authority of the Board of Trade), but may be used as a peg on which to hang a few sentences of practical information about a frequently misunderstood fact—the rising of a barometer before and during a northerly (northwest to north-easterly) gale. Mr. Jackson says that the barometer had been ' low with south-west winds ; on Friday morning began to rise, and continued rising, with decreasing teuiperature, P'riday, Saturday, and Sunda}', from 24 hours before Ihc gale to 24 hours after.' And if he had read the sixpenny Barometer Manual published yearly since 1856, and circulated gratis in many directions, especially among the fishermen around Great-Britain and Ireland, he would have known that these very signs, after an unusually low barometer, and southerly wind, indicated strong northerly gales. In the morninar of Wednesday, February 9, the barometers (two Kew verified) at Nairn were at 28.66. At Penzance, only four days previously, other two similar ones were at 30-80. From the Ist to the 7th of February—a whole week—the barometer not only continued falling, or oscillated (always a bad sign), over all the British Islands, but it fell remarkably low at some places. On Tuesday night, the sth, it blew 'a tremendous gale from the south-west' at Queenstown. At Dover the wind, early on the 6th, was reported at 10, in force, from the south-west. In South Kent it was called ' a hurricane,' and at sea, southward of Ireland, vessels had a ' south-wester' in full violence. Wednesday and Thursday were quiet, comparatively, here; not so within a few hundred miles—at Marseilles and elsewhere, perhaps, including the Black Sea ; but on Friday the foretold northerly gale began to blow, and as it restored the level or equilibrium of the atmosphere, of course it raised the barometer. Some observations in the Shipping Gazette of the 14th instant induced me to write a letter to the editor, in which was the following passage : ' The barometer began to rise just before the gale set in from the northward, rising more rapidly as it blew stronger. And why ? Because the polar current of wind was rushing, as a fluid current, towards the place of low barometer, where a comparative deficiency had existed, which it not only filled up, but, having once acquired impetus, or momentum, filled up to a height exceeding that which is usual, or normal, at the sea levelnamely, about 30 inches. The previous fall of the barometer, wjth unusually high temperature, expressed as plainly as words, ' soutnerly wind with rain.' (Southerly including south-east to south-westerly.). That wind, though it blew hard, did not restore the level (or equilibrium) of the atmosphere, and, therefore, till the polar current approached, the glass con. tinued to fall, or oscillated, while low. Directly the northerly wind's approach was felt the barometer began to rise, the thermometer was already fallings and both thus moved for a time in opposite directions,, one rising for the direction of the wind, while the other fell for its temperature." • The great practical difficulty in using a barometer is avoiding the natural inclination to draw conclusions hastily—without thinking enough of its foretelling •properties—so often insisted on in the Board of Trade Manual, and rather more explanatory pamplet the Barometer Guide, The main currents of atmosphere, polar and tropical, taking them on a large scale, .advance along the earth's surface side by side in nearly opposite directions, more or less superposed, or confliettng :in every kind of combination, and, turning each other in all varieties of; eddies (cyclones), though usually one way. ... • ■ • .• ■ While advancing-northward or southward they move also laterally, like a.ship making leeway, towards the cast, their elasticity, fluid properties^ and- different temperatures (solar influence and electricity,'of course, the main springs) occasioning. all the-varieties of weather, all the alterations and degrees of vapour, ■fog, rain, isnow,.hail, and cloud that we experience.

The gales of the sth, Bth, and 9th of this month were two cyclonic .combinations. /One cyclone, of which itha centrical area'bore north-westward from Nairn, in Scotland, was of large extent and slow motion. ;

-■.:> Ita southern half was checked and temporarily overborne by another.advancing, rapidly from the south•westward, which combined with and .''augmented the strength of tho polar current that on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, (10th) swept across the North Sea, Western- Europe, and beyond the west' of Ireland, .much further and wider than the extent of the Royal Charter storm. ' .

Widely extended and very general irregularities of the atmosphere (such as:;were shown by instruments before the Royal Charter, the Whitsuntide, the St. Kilda, and "otlier storms) are easily noticed, and are ■ certain to be followed by more or less strength of wind-, although not in all, or even many, places, be- . cause-currents of wiud, like those of water, r eircuiate, intermix, or. follow one another, moving swiftly-In some breadths, slowly in others, scarcely at all in or , near, their, respective centres of circulation',. Hence some places ,escape the violence of $ storm, while others, even near them, feel its full fury.- ■ • ,-.--■ Elaborate and complicated as may be the scientific researches of meteorology, the practical use of its results is happily most simple and availably open to any one ...who. will read £brief instructions, notice ordinary [weather glasses,- Rnd observe tho-changeß in the .Heavens.' ... ' London, Feb. 16.