Mr Lawson on the Trade-Winds of Barbadoes. 381 



to its deflection downwards, it must have been moving from 

 NNE. with great velocity (53, 74). 



76. " From midnight to 1 A. M. on the 11th August, the 

 * gale blew fiercely,' and at 1 seems to have drawn round as far 

 as north-cast, a change that would necessarily occur as the gale 

 proceeded westward (57). About this time the force of the 

 wind increased, it suddenly shifted from tJie north-east, and 

 burst from the north-west and intermediate points'^ This gra- 

 dual veering from the south to the north-east, according to 

 the rotatory theory, would have placed the centre of the 

 storm to the southward of the island, and, according to it, 

 too, the subsequent backing from north-east to north-west, 

 under these circumstances, should not have occurred. If the 

 centre of the storm passed to the northward of the island, 

 the wind, according to the rotatory theory, should have 

 backed gradually from north-east to NNW. and NW., and 

 not ' suddenly^ from NE. to NW., as was actually observed. 

 The gradual veering from N. to NE., according to the cen- 

 tripetal theory, would have placed the centre of the storm to 

 the south of the island, and, were it correct, the wind should 

 have veered to the eastward, and have gradually ceased. 

 On the contrary, these changes of direction may not only be 

 completely explained on the supposition of two currents flow- 

 ing from the NE. and NW., with an intermediate stratum 

 of air (32, 59), but in their turn aff"ord the most convincing 

 proof that such actually exists. 



77. After 2 a.m. the wind was north north-west, and north- 

 west. About 3 it occasionally abated, " but intervening gusts 

 proceeded from the south-west, the west, and west north-west, 

 with accumulated fury '"^ According to the centripetal theory, 

 a storm in which such changes occurred should have been 

 proceeding northward, yet the course of this hurricane was 

 most satisfactorily shewn by Colonel Reid to be westerly. 

 It would be very diflicult, too, to account for all these changes 

 of wind on the principles of pure rotation, though by referring 

 them to the difl'erent currents which usually prevail in the 

 atmosphere within the limits of the trades, every shift, every 

 squall even, may be satisfactorily explained (32, 59). 



78. About 3 A.M. there was a temporary lull accompanied 



