Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1871-07-18
WINDS AND WAVES.
POrtenls in the kies-lCebergs, and Earth
quakes-heteOrOlOgiCal and At
mospherlC Wonders - Ago
MES Of Mother Earth.

From the New York Herald.
ScientE c observers have long held
the theOr that at certain periods OF
time the earth's physical order is Sc.
riOusly cOnVulsed. The present and
past years, 1870 and 1871, seem to form
such a period. On both hemispheres
events of scarcely centennial occurrence
have recently excited attention and
alarm. The logs of sea-gOing vessels
record numerous startling phenomena
in mid-Oeean. The most violent and
memorable cyclones have been chrOn-
icled in our columns, reported by the
masters Of vessels. And the daily
and admirable bulletins of our signal
service have brought US numerous
and exact accounts of many storms
and tornsdoes on land. The earth
quake has added its terrors to the
story, and in many places where from
| time immemoTial there had been no
| sign or wonder ia heaven above or on
! earth beneath to disturb the serenety
! OF the popular mind, there have been,
In the period we allude TO, pOrtents in
the skies and shakings and sinkings
of the very crust of the earth On which
man erects his cOstliest edifces and
the monuments which be expects to
be ''mOre lasting than Brass
1t Is not our purpose to follow the
example of the false prophet of Lon
don, who, in the middle of the eigh-
tenth century, taking ass pretext the
then recentdnd unprecedented shocks
OF the continent and of England by
earthquake, proclaimed an impending
doom and the wreck of all things.
We rather think, with Humboldt, that
the vulgar suggestion of universal
disaster and the breaking up of the
cOsmicsl machinery at every strange
turn in nature is the mark of a charla-
tan in science. But these mysterious
commissions Of nature need to be
studied for the sake of science aud
popular Information. The last two
years have been strangely marked
n1eteOrOlOgically. 1t was in our win
ter of 1869 1.-THE midsummer of the
southern hemispheTe) that the British
Topographic Office found it necessary
to issue a special circular to all yes |
sells in the Australian trade, warning
them of unusual and immense ice.
bergs that had drifted out Of the Ant
srctlc ocean right athWhart their
hOmeward path. One OF these mon /
ster ice islands was in the shape OF
the letter J, sixty miles long and forty
miles wide, and presenting its open
part to the honleward- bound sailors
Such an ice mass had not been seen
since Wilkes Antarctic voyage. The
phenomenon Of 1869 indicated an i'm.
mense precipitation O~fdislOdged Ant
arctic ice into the equatorial ocean.
This may, doubtless, be regarded as
and a mighty element of atm0s-
pherieand Observation-Disclosures.
The extraordinary heat which was
necessary. 70 unlOosesQ much ice from
the South Pole in December, 1863, |
seemed to have Prevailed in the North
Polar regions when the sun crossed
the Equator in the spring Oflast year,
for the scientific reporter Of the
Scottish Meteorological Society, sta
at Stykishelm, Iceland, stated
officially that the summer of I670was,
perhaps, the most remarkable on Ice
record for its high thermomet-
rio rangesAAmdsH sisi not improbable
that TIE hhhHsuaIly early and large
drifts of ice and icebergs from the
coast last year deceived the
sagaeiOus commander OF the Inflated
steamer CitysD BOstOnsand caused her
yet unexplained destruction. Thistl
ice from the Arctic ocean has been d z
second agent OF disturbance. The un.
usual arrival of Spitzbergen ice, of
the coast OF Iceland In 1869. caused a
great hurricanes 4 e the severest.V ae-
eording to the reporter, s'that has an.
peared at Stykisholm in the memory
Of man. pa And, just as this local huf-
ricane was caused by a single iceberg.
the agitations of the atmosphere all
over the Northern Atlantic last year
were perhaps, caused by the whole
body Of observation-disclosures from
both poles toward thessEquator... The
aripinaI cause al thele eYfremefem-
peFatures at the pe4essi s one Of thoset
mysteries yet c6acssled behind the