prevalent Disorders, #c, With Volcanic Emanations. 133 



9 a.m., when it became calm, large black clouds beginning to 

 gather, and the wind drawing to the north. At 10 p.m., it 

 began to blow hard from the N.W., with heavy rain, and vivid 

 flashes of lightning. At 2 a.m. (the 22d), it blew harder, 

 drawing to w., with a tremendously heavy sea rolling from all 

 quarters. " But from 5 a.m. till noon it was the worst ; the 

 rain falling in torrents, and blowing as if the heavens had 

 burst open, and all nature seemed at an end. We were," 

 says Mr. Scott, " in lat. 16° n., long. 67° 30' w." The wea- 

 ther moderated a little after noon, and the atmosphere became 

 clearer; the wind was then about s.w. ; and, twenty-four 

 hours after, it gradually drew to s., s.e., and e., moderating, 

 and the clouds clearing away, " as if nothing had happened.'' 

 Mr. Scott adds, that " had he not had one of the best of 

 vessels, he would not have been left to tell this tale." He 

 farther states, that, from August 30. to Sept. 1 7., the period 

 of his stay at Puerto Cavello, there was no particular differ- 

 ence in the state of the weather there, " except it was much 

 warmer than usual" On Sept. 23., the hurricane reached 

 St. Domingo, and raged there from 4 to 7 p.m. It was so 

 violent, that nothing could stand against it : every ship in the 

 harbour was thrown on shore ; houses were blown down, 

 trees torn up by the roots ; torrents of rain fell unceasingly 

 during the next twenty-four hours. The average progress of 

 this hurricane has, therefore, been traced 555 miles in about 

 sixty-three hours, from Roseau to St. Domingo. The po- 

 sitions of the three localities are, Roseau, 15° 10' n., 61° 30' w. ; 

 Lee, 16° N., 67° 30' w. ; St. Domingo, 18° 20' n,, 70° w. : 

 the distance between the former two being 355 miles, and 

 between the latter two, 200 miles. The progress between 

 the first two was at the rate of twenty-seven miles per hour; 

 between the latter two localities, it was not more than seven 

 miles per hour ; the storm continuing about twelve hours in 

 Dominica, and about fourteen hours with the Lee. I should 

 presume this hurricane had a diameter of about 120 miles. 

 The occurrence of the tornado off the coast of Africa gives 

 reason to surmise that the hurricane commenced long before 

 it reached Dominica; and that the former was, perhaps, the 

 first indication of it. * On this supposition the ensuing cal- 

 culation is founded. The length of a degree of longitude 

 between the parallels of 12°n. and 15° n. (the latitudes of 



* The ship Wellington, on her way to Bombay (as I learn from a friend 

 on board), had heavy swells ami contrary winds from Sept. 7., when she 

 left Falmouth, till 20., when she reached Madeira ; especially on the 13th, 

 when a tremendously heavy swell came rolling in from s.w., indicative of 

 a gale in that direction. 



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