STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 275 



is on our Pacific Coast less meridi&nal in its course, and pushes more 

 toward the east, especially north of the parallel of 48° north latitude, 

 where it is favored in this more easterly direction by the orographic features 

 of the continent, which are less elevated and bold than they are south of 

 this parallel. Vessels sailing south from San Diego to Mexican ports are 

 peculiarly exposed from June to November from severe gales, beginning 

 generally at southeast or southwest. These southeast gales may be looked 

 for in still greater severity and frequency, especially during Winter and the , 

 equinoctial seasons, all the way from San Diego to the Straits of 



JUAN DE FUCA, 



And attended with thick, rainy weather. Vessels sailing northward to San 

 Diego from Mexican and southerly ports, should they encounter a gale 

 moving up the coast, should stand off for the starboard tack, thus getting 

 the eastward winds of the cyclone, which removes the danger of going 

 ashore. 



RECURVATION OF STORM-PATHS IN THE EASTERN PACIFIC 



Mr. William C. Redfield, on cyclones on the Western Pacific, says: 

 Most of the cyclones which I have last described, however, must have been 

 recurvated in a more advanced position in the Pacific Ocean, and in their 

 subsequent northeasterly progress they would fall almost perpendicularly 

 upon the coasts of the two Californias. or the more northern Territories. 

 Thus, instead of sweeping a great length of these coasts successively, as 

 happens on our Atlantic border, these cyclones appear more like local 

 storms, and can not be traced consecutively on the coast line. At the point 

 of intersection with the coast, the first and main portion of the gale will be 

 felt from the southeast, on the center path, or more southerly in the right 

 hand quadrants; and near the coast the northeasterly or reflex winds of 

 the cyclone,, pertaining to its first left hand quadrant, will not be strongly 

 developed. 



From Cape San Lucas, 23°, to San Diego, 32° north latitude, the coast is 

 subject to violent gales from the southeast from November to April, and 

 that they are more frequent as we go toward San Diego. Before their 

 recurvation these cyclones are likely to have passed westward in lower 

 latitudes than those which fall on the Mexican Coast. 



From San Diego to San Francisco the coast is subject to southeasterly 

 gales, like those of the coast of Lower California, but they are more 

 frequent here, and blow with greater force. These gales last from twelve 

 hours to two days, and are accompanied by heavy rain, which lasts till the 

 wind changes, which it often does very suddenly, and blows as hard for a 

 few hours from the northwest, when the clouds clear off and fine weather 

 again succeeds. This is a clear description of the phenomena of cyclones, 

 as shown on their center paths, while moving in a northeasterly course. 



From San Francisco to the Straits of Juan De Fuca, hard gales from all 

 points of the compass may be looked for at all seasons. These begin gen- 

 erally from southeast to southwest, bringing thick rainy weather with 

 them. After blowing from these quarters for some hours, they fly round 

 to the northward, by the west, with little if any warning, and blow even 

 harder than before. These changes show the observer to have been in 

 the right hand quadrants of the gale, as most often will happen, and are 

 but counterparts of the changes met with in the cyclones encountered in 

 the same latitude in the north Atlantic. 



