844 Redfield and Reid on Storms. 



the American Journal of Science, a work much less known in 

 this country than its value and great merits deserved. The north- 

 east storms on the coast of America had attracted the attention of 

 Franklin. He had been prevented by one of these storms from 

 observing an eclipse of the moon at Philadelphia, which he was 

 soon after astonished to find had been felt at Boston, although 

 that town lay to the north-east of Philadelphia. This was a 

 circumstance not to be lost on such an inquiring mind as 

 Franklin's : he ascertained, upon inquiry, that the same north- 

 east storm had not reached Boston for some hours after it had 

 blown at Philadelphia ; and that, although the wind blew from 

 the north-east, yet the progress of the entire storm was from the 

 south-west. He died, however, before he had made any fur- 

 ther progress in this investigation. Col. Capper of the East 

 India Company's service, after having studied meteorological 

 subjects for twenty years in the Madras territory, published a 

 work, in 1801, upon winds and monsoons, giving brief state- 

 ments of their fatal effects, from Orme's ' History of Hindos- 

 tan.' In this work he states his belief that hurricanes will be 

 found to be great whirlwinds ; and says, ' it would not, perhaps, 

 be a matter of great difficulty to ascertain the situation of a 

 ship in a whirlwind, by observing the strength and changes of 

 the wind. If the changes are sudden^ and the wind violent, in 

 all probability the ship must be near the centre of the vortex 

 of the whirlwind ; whereas, if the wind blows a great length 

 of time from the same point, and the changes are gradual, 

 it may reasonably be supposed that the ship is near the ex- 

 tremity of it.' In this conjecture respecting the nature of 

 hurricanes, Col. Held conceived Col. Capper to be decidedly 

 right, and the conclusion he drew from it has stood the test of 

 close examination. Mr Redfield, following up the observation 

 of Franklin, and though probably unacquainted with the views 

 or opinions of Capper, ascertained that, while the north-east 

 storms were blowing on the shores of America, the wind was 

 with equal violence blowing a south-west storm on the Atlantic. 

 Tracking Franklin's storms from the southward, he found, 

 throughout their course, that the wind on opposite sides of the 

 shore, over which the storm prevailed, blew in opposite direc- 

 tions, and that, in fact, the entire storm was a progressive whirl- 



