420 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



for our tropical storms what the word "typhoon" does for those of China, 

 in honor and recognition of the distinguished services of his esteemed friend, 

 the Director of the Meteorological Observatory of the " Colegio de Belen." 



Regretting that his limited time did not allow him even to mention the 

 many other incidents of his month's stay in Havana, Mr. Hayden returned 

 to the subject of the deflection of hurricanes from their normal paths, a 

 subject of infinite importance, both theoretically and practically. To select 

 a case that admirably illustrated exactly what was meant, how and why 

 the deflection took place, and the manner in which it was possible to antici- 

 pate and predict it, he illustrated by means of six synchronous weather 

 charts, shown upon the screen together, the weather conditions at noon, 

 G. M. T. (7 a. m., seventy-fifth meridian time), October ninth to fourteenth, 

 inclusive, 1886, during which time one of the most severe hurricanes ever 

 experienced in the Gulf of Mexico originated south of Cuba and west of 

 Jamaica, recurved in the usual latitude, off Cape San Antonio; but then, 

 completely foiling Padre Vines' published predictions, turned to the west- 

 ward, swept over the entire Gulf of Mexico and up the Mississippi Valley 

 to Lake Huron and the St. Lawrence Valley. Only the other day a report 

 was received from Captain Jose Riera, with graphic details regarding the 

 loss of his vessel, the Spanish bark Tres Auroras, in the very vortex of this 

 terrific storm about one hundred and twenty miles north of Cape San An- 

 tonio, and the marvelous escape of six of the crew — thirteen in all — after 

 tossing about for four days on wreckage from his vessel. The charts showed 

 that a strong anti-cyclone had prevailed over the middle Atlantic States, 

 and that it was this that had blocked the track of the advancing cyclone 

 and forced it westward before allowing it to go north, so that it eventually 

 reached the Atlantic by way of the great lakes and the St. Lawrence Valley. 



These same considerations were shown to have held good in other cases, 

 notably that of the great Cuban hurricane of last September, and the com- 

 paratively recent hurricane that devastated our Atlantic seaboard the last 

 few days of November, blocked in its northward progress by an anti-cyclone 

 over the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and venting its baffled rage upon the Samana 

 and a dozen other vessels, sent to the bottom with all on board, almost in 

 sight of their homes, firesides, and friends. The physical explanation of 

 this interaction between cyclone and anti-cyclone is simple enough, and 

 lies in the fact that the fuel of the C3 r clonic furnace is warm, moist, ocean 

 air, which ascends, precipitates its moisture, and is carried away in the 

 upper atmospheric currents, to descend again in the anti-cyclone or "high" 

 as cool, dry air. Just as a great forest fire changes its course when it meets 

 a clearing and dies out or runs around it, so a tropical cyclone follows the 

 lines where its fuel is most abundant, and rages with greatest intensity 

 where the tropical sun and tepid ocean currents load the heavy atmosphere 

 with moisture. In the words of Shakespeare, that immortal painter of the 

 smiles and passions of nature and mankind, " The sun's a thief, and with 

 his great attraction robs the vast sea." 



Four synchronous weather charts, prepared from hundreds of reports 

 received from vessels off our coast during the November hurricane, pre- 

 sented at a glance the most striking features of that great storm during 

 the period of greatest intensity, and the progress or growth of the hurri- 

 cane in the direction of heaviest rainfall was illustrated by a weather map 

 for August 21, 1888. 



The March blizzard, one of the most notable storms of the century, and 

 of a very different type from those that had just been considered, was 

 illustrated by means of six lantern slides, in colors, showing the progress 

 from west to east of a long line or trough of low barometer, extending 



