20 Supposed Connection of Meteoric Phenomena, 



wind, it is said, blew so completely equally from all points of 

 the compass, " that, at the end of ten hours, when the hur- 

 ricane subsided, the sea bore very little appearance of having 

 been violently agitated." The next day, a few leagues to the 

 westward, they were met by a French vessel that had not 

 felt the storm; and they were also overtaken by another ship, 

 following the Britannia's track, which had not suffered the 

 least inconvenience. This hurricane, therefore, did not extend 

 more than thirty leagues.* 



Mr. Scoresby {Arctic Regions, i. 409.) observes, that, in the 

 Greenland seas, " storms, in the spring of the year, blowing 

 from the s.e., generally change, before they abate, to e., 

 n.e., n., and n.w. ; but storms commencing at s.w. or s. 

 usually veer, before they subside, in .the contrary direction, 

 towards the n.w.; and sometimes continue changing until 

 their strength is spent in the n. or n.e. quarter." He men- 

 tions, also, several gales which exactly parallel what is related 

 above of the Britannia. " Two ships," he says, " bearing 

 n.e. from us, had the wind at n.e.; two, bearing e., at e. 

 and e.n.e. ; two, bearing s.e., had the wind at s.e.; while, 

 with us, it blew from the n. w." (vol. i. p. 404.) The date of 

 this was April 30. 1810. Again, in April, 1813, he says : — 

 " In the course of the day, we had winds from every point of 

 the compass, and with every degree of force from storm to 

 calm." — M Though we were nearly becalmed, we observed 

 several ships a few miles to the south-eastward, under close- 

 reefed topsails, having evidently a gale of wind blowing in the 

 direction (s.s.e.) of the swell. About two hours afterwards 

 the southerly wind reached us ; and, as we stood to the east- 

 ward, gradually increased to a gale." To this succeeded a 

 calm, at 5 p.m. " From the clear atmosphere to the north- 

 ward and westward, and the dense sky to the southward and 

 eastward, with the heavy swell from the s. s. e., it was evident 

 that we were between two winds, a southerly storm to the 

 southward of us, and a northerly breeze to the northward. 

 At 7 p.m. of the same day, a north-east wind commenced, 

 and soon blew a tremendous storm." This last was a ge- 

 neral storm, extending over " several degrees of latitude to 

 the southward ; " and was " particularly predicted by the 

 barometer and thermometer, the former having fallen from 

 29*74 to 28-98, and the latter from 30° to 12°, in about 

 twelve hours." (p. 406.) Agreeably, also, to what Mr. 

 Redfield has stated respecting the swell which attends the 



* Oa March 1. 1818" occurred a dreadful hurricane at Mauritius, blow- 

 ing from s.e., n.e., to N.N.W. 



