Mr Lawson on the Trade-Winds of Barbadoes, 367 



unremitting viglenco ; in which respect it agrees with our 

 own north-easterly gales. When it is spent, a stratum of air, 

 which had been interposed between it and the returning 

 tropical current, suddenly shews itself; which having been 

 balanced between these opposite impulses, obeys neither, but 

 appears (as it is) at rest as %o horizontal movement. But the 

 calm is of short duration: the superior SW. wind comes 

 down, and the moment it touches the earth, the storm is re- 

 established.*"* 



46. According to Re id and Redfield, the direction of gyra- 

 tion, in the West Indian hurricane, is contrary to the motion 

 of the hands of a watch, or, is NW.SE., as indicated by the 

 outer arrows of the accompanying fig- 

 ure. Thus the wind at N. would be 

 from East, at W. from North, at S. 

 from West, and at E. from South, and 

 at every intermediate point, its line of ^^ 

 direction would be a tangent to the 

 circle at that point. The arrows in 

 each quarter of the circle shew the 

 general direction of the four different 

 currents which are found in the atmosphere, at the inner 

 margin of the trade-winds, which perfectly coincide with the 

 facts which have been ascertained as to the gyration of the 

 hurricane, and with which their connexion is too obvious to 

 admit of a moment's doubt. 



47. The directions of the wind, however, at different points 

 of the hurricane, will be somewhat different from those in 

 Fig. 1, though the general similarity will remain. For in- 

 stance, in Fig. 2, supposing the centre 

 of the storm to be at C, the trade- 

 wind will be felt over nearly the whole 

 northern half of the circle E N W., and 

 will continue the same direction over 

 a portion of the quadrant W S. And, 

 in the quadrant E N , that portion of it 

 which lies to the eastward of the line 

 passing through the centre, will be 



* lloward'8 Climate of London, 2d edition, Vol' iiV pV 212-l'3. 



