ALARMING WEATHER PREDICTIONS.

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 189, 14 August 1869, Page 6

ALARMING WEATHER PREDICTIONS.

tidal wave and storm expected

Lieut. Saxby wrote to the London ftanrfarcf some months ago, as follows; Sir. —On the Ist June, 1863, you, in your journal, kindly permitted me to offer a special warning as the period between the 10th and 13th December of that year. After giving my reasons for expecting very serious weather in that December, I said, “ Now let any man tell me what other influence can be adduced to concide for that period so as to increase the chance of our having the most destructive storm and the most dangerous tide with which the earth can ‘ without miracle be visited.;’ Well-known and widely-known fulfilments justified this prediction, and those results are my apology for asking permission to acquaint the world through your columns with what threatens, not only us in Great Britain, but all parts of the earth as about to happen in the coming year. Some of your readers may probably be incredulous as to weather warnings given, at so long an interval before an expected danger: allow me, therefore, first to give at least one authentic instance or absolute fulfilment (as published by me some time early in 1864). A stranger to me, Captain Sturley, of Burnamhovery, wrote to me on 2nd November, 1863, as follows :—“ Observing your letter in the Slandaid of Ist June," &c., . . . “ would you still advise us to take every precaution against this coming tide ?” [I strongly renewed my advice as to the sea walls of the Lincolnshire and Norfolk fens]. On 21st December, 1863, he again wrote :—“ The tide made, its appearance much earlier than usual—at 7. 45 a.m. of Sunday, 13th, the tide was at its highest, being a very large tide ; should we have had a gale from the north-west it would have overflowed all our banks. I think you were perfectly justified in giving warning. I may say your warning has induced a long neglected sea bank to be put in repair

I need say no more, except that on the same day [Dec. 13] the dock master of the Victoria Dock, London, found 30 feet water on the dock sill, which enabled him to dock the largest merchant ship afloat—the Great Republic—and also the ironclad Monitor, there being an excessive raise of about eight feet. 1 now beg leave tosay, with regard to I 869, that at 7 u.m. on October 5, the moon will be at the part of her orbit which is nearest to the earth. Her attraction will, therefore, be at its maximum force. At noon of the same day the moon will be on the earth’s equator, a circumstance which never occurs without marked atmospheric disturbance, and at 2 p.m. of the same day lines drawn from the earth’s centre would cut the sun and moon in the same arc of right ascension ; the moon’s attraction and the sun’s attraction will therefore be acting in the same direction ; in other words the new moon will be on the earth’s equator when in perigee, and nothing more threatening can, I say, occur without miracle. The earth, it is true, will not be in perihelion by some 16 or 17 seconds of semi-diameter. With your permission, I will, during September next, for the safety of mariners, briefly remind your readers of this warning. In the meanwhile there will be time for the repair of unsafe sea walls, and for the circulation of this notice, by means of your far-reaching voice throughout the wide world. At the period referred to in 1863 the moon happened to be in extreme south declination, and accordingly the greater devastations occurred in the southern hemisphere [e.g., Melbourne—Vide ‘ London Times of February 13, 1864 the Cape of Good Hope, &c.], but next year the two hemispheres will be affected alike.