26 Supposed Connection of Meteoric Phenomena, 



the West Indies, assure me that they are invariably accom- 

 panied by shocks of earthquake; but that the confusion occa- 

 sioned prevents many from remarking or distinguishing the 

 shock during the awful noise and convulsions of the elements.* 



What, indeed, can satisfy so well as intense heat suddenly 

 developed the fury of a gale, which, by the power of the 

 wind alone, has driven a tenpenny nail more than three 

 fourths of its own length through a thick plank f ; and has 

 forced a deal board more than a foot into a solid wall of 

 masonry ? both which circumstances were recently related to 

 me by a gentleman who witnessed them at Barbadoes, during 

 the hurricane of 1831. My informant told me other facts 

 equally striking ; remarking, that he would not bear testimony 

 to what he had seen of the force of the wind in that and the 

 other islands, except to an intimate friend, lest ignorant persons, 

 who knew not his estimate of truth, should doubt occurrences 

 so wonderfully contrasted with what is known here in cases of 

 elemental commotion. 



There were various instances in 1833, and in the beginning 

 of the present year, of storms which traversed an extent of 

 sea and land almost incredible under any other supposition 

 than that of induction towards a spot heated from below. 

 The hurricanes of Calcutta and New Orleans (the one 88° e., 

 the other 90° w., from the meridian of London) occurring on 

 the same day, and blowing towards a central point, from the 

 n.e. and the n.w., might lead to the idea of a whole hemi- 

 sphere contemporaneously affected by some such cause as 

 produces the regular trade-winds and monsoons : but the 

 propelling cause of the winds, in these simultaneous hurri- 

 canes, could not be the sun ; and, therefore, considering the 

 principles above stated, reason would point to some cause 

 operating, at different points, upon the surface of the earth or 

 sea; and, as the distance of a volcanic locality, in either case, 

 is but a few miles more or less than the extremes of 1000 and 

 1600 (and it is very likely that volcanic action did occur, at 

 the same moment, at the extremities of the arch of 180° J), it 



* The great evidence as to the fact of the earthquake is, the perpen- 

 dicular rent, from below, of walls and buildings. 



■f Professor Winthrop, relating an account of the whirlwind at Cam- 

 bridge, in New England, on July 10. 1761, says : — " Some nails, that were 

 in a cask in the east chamber, were driven, in great numbers, into the trees 

 on the eastern side of the house." This whirlwind commenced with clouds 

 from the s.w. and n.w., in the junction of which the circular motion began ; 

 the storm going to the n.w., and scattering beams and trees to s., n.n.e., 

 andE. (P. T., 1761.) 



% June 5. 1834 witnessed earthquakes at Cartagena, in 80° w. long., and 

 Cephalonia, in 20° e . long., at the same time ; the difference in latitude being 

 more than 27°: Earthquakes occurred simultaneously at Fez in Africa ; 

 and in New York, Boston, &c, in America; on Nov. 18. 1755. 



