346 Redfield and Reid an Storms. 



tudes, and being impressed with the regularity with which they 

 appear to pass toward the North Pole, and always revolved in 

 the same direction, — viz. opposite to the hands of a watch, or 

 from the east round by the north, west, south, and east, — he 

 was led to conclude, that, in accordance with the order of na- 

 ture, storms in south latitudes would be found to revolve in a 

 contrary direction to that which they take in the northern hemi- 

 spheres. He earnestly sought for facts, to ascertain if this 

 were really the case, and had obtained much information con- 

 firmatory of the truth of the conjecture, before he was aware 

 that Mr Redfield had formed the same conjecture, without, 

 however, having traced any storms in south latitudes. The 

 general phenomena of these storms will be understood, if the 

 storm, as a great whirlwind, be represented by a circle, whose 

 centre is made to progress along a curve, or part of a curve, 

 which is, in most cases, of a form approaching the parabolic, 

 the circles expanding as they advance from the point at which 

 the storm begins to be felt, the rotatory motion in the northern 

 hemisphere being in the contrary direction to that in which the 

 hands of a watch go round ; while, in the southern hemisphere, 

 the rotation is in the same direction as that in which the hands 

 of a watch revolve. He pointed out how his views were il- 

 lustrated by the disastrous storm of 1809, experienced by the 

 East India fleet, under the convoy of the Culloden line-of- 

 battle ship, and the Terpsidiore frigate, and four British men- 

 of-war, which left the Cape of Good Hope about the same 

 time, intending to cruise about the Mauritius. Some of these 

 vessels scudded and ran in the storm for days ; some, by lying 

 to, got almost immediately out of it, while others, by taking a 

 wrong direction, went into the heart of it, foundered, and were 

 never heard of more : others, by sailing right across the calm 

 space, met the same storm in different parts of its progress, and 

 the wind blowing in opposite directions, and considered and 

 spoke of it as two storms, which they encountered ; while others, 

 by cruising about within the bend of the curve, but beyond 

 the circle of the great whirl, escaped the storm altogether, which 

 had been for days raging on all sides of them. This led him 

 to draw the very important practical conclusion as to how a 

 ship should act when she encountered a gale, so as to escape 



