688 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



thing, if he was scudding before the wind, the center would lie exactly 

 on the starboard beam in the northern and on the port beam in the 

 southern hemisphere. 



Modern meteorologists, however, almost with one voice, declare for 

 a spirally incurving movement as the most probable behavior of the 

 wind, as would be indicated by the angle which its direction makes 

 with the isobars as just explained ; but this view presents no novelty, 

 for it was first stated about forty years ago, and Piddington, in his 

 " Sailor's Hornbook," says that even Redfield, when propounding his 

 " Law of Storms," stated : 



" I have never been able to conceive that the wind in violent storms 

 moved only in circles. On the contrary, a vortical movement, ap- 

 proaching to that which may be seen in all lesser vortices, aerial or 

 aqueous, appears to be an essential element of their violent and long- 

 continued action, of their increased energy toward the center of axis, 

 and of the accompanying rain. In conformity with this view, the 

 storm-figure on my chart of the storms of 1830 was directed to be en- 

 graved in spiral or involute lines, but this point was yielded for the 

 convenience of the engraver." 



We see, therefore, that when we trace back to its origin the belief 

 that any storms are really circular, we find that it was " the conven- 

 ience of an engraver " which decided the question. 



It may be safely asserted that there does not exist, for a single in- 

 stance of a West Indian hurricane or China Sea typhoon, a sufficiency 

 of evidence to convince any unprejudiced investigator as to what was 

 the true path of the air in the storm. To show this path beyond the 

 possibility of doubt, we require a considerable number of simultaneous 

 observations taken on different sides of the storm center. These, 

 however, were not forthcoming in the case of a single storm described 

 by Redfield, Reid, or Piddington, so that the authority of the founders 

 of the law of storms can not be cited as decisive of the question. 



This suggestion of spiral motion must of course modify the simple 

 rule for a ship scudding, of looking in the wind's eye, and taking eight 

 points on the starboai'd or port side for the storm center, and indicates 

 the probability that the true position of that spot will be at least two 

 or three points ahead of the bearing given by that rule, so that the 

 ship, if scudding, may be gradually approaching the most dangerous 

 part of the storm. 



The recent investigations of Mr. Meldrum, which have been thor- 

 oughly confirmed by Captain Toynbee's examination of the Nova Scotia 

 storm of August 24, 1873, lead to the suspicion, not to use a stronger 

 word, that these cyclonic storms are not symmetrical at all, and that at 

 some parts of the system the wind blows directly toward the center, so 

 that for a ship in such a situation, and scudding before the wind, the 

 center would lie right ahead. 



This is a subject which requires most careful study, in order to see 



