Mr. Redfield is right in saying (American Journal of Science, vol. ii., new series, p. 321) that "too much reliance may be placed upon mere observations of the surface winds in meteorological inquiries," and yet _they_ only have thus far been regarded, and he has proved gyration in no other way. I have frequently, with a vane in sight, asked intelligent men how the wind was, and been amused and instructed by their inability to state it correctly. Mr. Redfield, in his inquiries, often found two reports of the weather at the _same time_, from the _same place_, materially different; and I have known, from my own observation, newspapers and meteorological registers to be several points out of the way; and this, because the vanes are influenced by local elevations, and change several points, and very often; because few know the exact points of the compass in their own localities, and because entire accuracy has not been deemed essential. For these reasons, newspaper and telegraphic reports are not always reliable; and therefore, and because, also, storm-winds are easterly and fair winds westerly, and the former veer from east around to west, on one or both sides in many cases, there are few storms which can not be represented as whirlwinds, by a proper _selection_ of _reports_, a corresponding _location_ of the _center_, and an _extension_ of the lines of supposed gyration, so as to include the _preceding_ winds, the actual winds of the storm, and the _lateral_, and _succeeding_ fair weather ones. But, again, Mr. Redfield is right in saying there is, in such cases, "an extended stratum of stratus cloud," and it is always present. But why does he say this _covers the storm_? Is it distinct from it, and if so, what is it doing there? What power placed it there, and for what purpose? Has this extended stratum of cloud, which forms the canopy of a vast chamber--five hundred to one thousand miles in diameter, and less than two miles in vertical depth, while the earth forms the floor--any agency in producing the whirl that is supposed to be going on within it, and if so, what? Has the earth any agency, and if so, what? If neither the ceiling nor floor of the chamber have any agency in producing it, what does? Are we to consider the _storm-scud_ as possessing the power, and as waltzing around the aerial chamber, carrying the air with them in a hurricane-dance of devastation? _What, in short, is the power, and how is it exerted?_ To these questions, Mr. Redfield's essays furnish no comprehensive answer. There is an intimation that the cause of storms will be, at some future day, developed. One attempt, and but one, has thus far been made, and that I quote entire: "We have seen that the two Cuba storms, as well as the Mexican northers, have appeared to come from the contiguous border of the Pacific Ocean.