392 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



whirl, but with the heavy rain and high tides are its most familiar attribute to 

 the Gulf Coast and Atlantic Seaboard peoples. 



The violence of these northeast gales and of all the hurricane winds that blow 

 about the vortex has nothing to do with the storm's progressive motion, which 

 is often less than 10 miles an hour, since this is controlled by the general circula- 

 tion; the westward drift of the tropics, until it gets north of the parallel of 30°, 

 and later by the eastward-moving currents of the North Temperate Zone. When 

 the tropical cyclone gets into this more northerly system it behaves exactly as a 

 regular continental cyclone, and has to take its chances in the action and inter- 

 action of the polar cyclones and anti-cyclones that cover the continent. Hence 

 the variations in its path, a few of which are given here. 



Track No. 1 is that of the cyclone that caused the disaster on the Sea Islands 

 near Savannah and Charleston, in September, 1893, causing a loss of over 400 

 Uves (some claim 1,000 in all), leaving 30,000 homeless and destitute. It also 

 proved destructive as far north as Long Island. Track No. 2 is that of the Porto 

 Rican cyclone of August 8, 1899, that caused a loss of 2,900 lives with 500,000 

 people more or less affected by its devastating effects. Track No. 4 is that of the 

 storm that caused a loss of nearly 2,000 lives along the coast and in the bayou dis- 

 trict of Louisiana, in October, 1893. 



In the case of the great Galveston cyclone (track No. 3), an anti-cyclone lying 

 over the Middle States held it up as it was moving in toward Florida, and its path 

 was deflected westward. It moved about 10 miles an hour along its track from 

 September 6 to September 9, while the vortical winds were blowing toward and 

 about the center at a rate of from 50 to 100 miles an hour, as Galveston learned 

 on the 8th, the severest blow coming from the southeast after the center had 

 passed Galveston. From the 9th to the 11th it decreased in intensity, and, when 

 central over Oklahoma, on the 10th, had all the appearance of an ordinary rainy 

 'low area.' In jumping from Des Moines on the 11th to near Montreal on the 12th, 

 it increased in energy; the rate of progression was about 50 miles an hour, at 

 the same time its vortical winds over the Lakes reached a velocity of 72 miles. On 

 the 13th it was over Newfoundland, and caused great damage to shipping on the 

 'Banks,' and reached Iceland on the 20th, traveling from September 1, when it 

 originated south of Porto Rico, to September 20, over 7,000 miles, and at times 

 covering, in diameter, regions 1,000 miles across. 



