404 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



for the navigator to apply 'the law of storms ' as developed in the Atlantic 

 and Indian Oceans to these same meteors in the Pacific, and almost with- 

 out question they will be found accordant, in most instances, with that law. 



" In the Southern Pacific we have a groundwork to assert the character 

 and occurrence of the true cyclones, and as Mr. Piddington states almost 

 all that need be said on the subject, we quote his words: 



'" In the tropical regions of the South Pacific, from the barrier reefs of 

 Australia through the numerous groups of islands to the low archipelago, 

 and perhaps even to near the coast of South America, and from the equa- 

 tor to latitude 25° south, there is no doubt that true hurricane storms (cy- 

 clones) occur of as great violence at least as those in the North Pacific; but 

 from the scattered accounts of single ships, as also of missionary residents 

 on the various islands, we cannot say anything positive as to their tracks, 

 though they appear to come from the eastward among the islands, and 

 sometimes to curve to the southward. The following are a few notes. The 

 seasons at which they prevail seem also to be the same as those of the 

 Mauritius and Bourbon: 



'"At Viti-Leon, in the Fiji group, in February, 1841, a well-defined cir- 

 cular storm (cyclone), tolerably observed, seemed to have moved to the 

 southward, and, though it lasted four days, was not felt at Tonga, eight or 

 ten degrees to the southeast of it. 



"'At Apia harbor, in the Samoan group (Navigators' Islands), latitude 

 14° south, on the sixteenth day of December, eighteen hundred and forty, a 

 true hurricane storm (cyclone), of great violence, with a fall of four inches 

 of the mercury (by a damaged barometer) was observed, moving from the 

 north to the southward; and, four years previous, another, also well defined, 

 moving from the northeast to the southeastward, the change of wind being 

 from southeast to northwest. The space between the Samoan (Navigators') 

 Islands and Friendly Islands is said expressly to be subject to violent hurri- 

 canes, and that scarcely a year passes without some of the Friendly Islands 

 suffering from them. Their violence is such that many of the American 

 whalers have been made complete wrecks of by them; two were lost about 

 1842 (year uncertain) at the Navigators' Islands. 



"'At the Kingsmill group, on the equator, violent storms, which appear 

 to be typhoon-like, are experienced. 



"'At Vavroo, in the Friendly Islands, latitude 19° south, longitude 173° 

 west, in 1837, the American whaler Independence was driven on shore by 

 ' a hurricane,' and taken off by a shift of wind. 



" ' The account of the storm at Raratonga, in the Hervey Islands, in lat- 

 itude 19° south, longitude 160° west, described by Mr. Williams and quoted 

 by Colonel Reid, gives us, unfortunately, nothing further than the certainty 

 that hurricanes (cyclones) prevail there at times.' " 



Without quoting literally from this authority any further, from the same 

 authority are collated the facts that in December, 1842, H. M. S. Favorite, 

 between Tahiti and Mangeea, met with a rotary storm; in February, 1840, 

 a cyclone, bearing southwestward, visited the Bay of Islands, New Zealand; 

 July 28, 1849, H. M. S. Buffalo was wrecked in a heavy gale, which lasted 

 three days, at Mercury Bay, New Zealand; rotary storms have been expe- 

 rienced between Van Diemans Land and Cape Horn; a heavy gale off 

 Cape Tres Puritas, April 5, 1882; another in the same latitude and longi- 

 tude, April tenth of the same year; one swept the Bay of Camavos to the 

 Island of Desegada in May, 1846, during which twelve English and Amer- 

 ican vessels were lost. The record from which this data is taken, " Hurri- 

 canes of the South Pacific Ocean," by Alexander George Findlay, F.R.G.S., 

 mentions the circumstance that in every instance where it was possible to 



