Cyclones in the South Atlantic. 119 



Here we found an English, a French, and an American 

 frigate, as also a dirty old Brazilian sloop of war. Besides 

 these ships of war, a Spanish frigate and galliot lay in the mer- 

 cantile dock for repair ; they had shortly before their arrival lost 

 their masts in o, pamperoy* which, however, had borne all the 

 characteristic marks of a cyclone,! The occurrence of tornadoes 

 in the South Atlantic has been so often and so decidedly de- 

 nied, that the mariner does not readily believe the violent 

 storms of those latitudes to be hurricanes. This Spanish frigate 

 had accordingly sailed heedlessly into the storm, and, with only 

 such precautions taken as referred to mast and sail, had without 

 further concern proceeded on her course. She thus had got into 

 the very heart of the cyclone, and escaped entire destruction 



* A squall of wind of the South American Pampas. 



f The following succinct statement of the characteristics and general laws of 

 cyclones will be found useful by way of reference : — 



1. It has been fully ascertauied that in both hemispheres the an- in the cyclone 

 rotates in a direction contrary to that of the sun. Thus, in the N. hemisphere, the 

 course of the sun being from E. to S., W., and N., the course of the hurricane is from 

 N. by W., S., and E. ; and in the S. hemisphere, the sun's course being from E. by N., 

 W., and S., the hurricane runs fr'om N. by E., S., and W. 



2. They originate in the space between the equator and the tropics, near tha 

 equatorial limit of the trade winds. 



3. There is no instance on record of a hurricane having been encoimtered on the 

 equator, nor of any one havuig crossed the Line, although two have been laiown to 

 be raging at the same time in the same meridian, but on opposite sides of the 

 equator, and only 10° to 12° apart ! 



4. Their movement, wliich is always oblique from the equator to the poles, is 

 usually from E. to W. at first, and towards the end W. to E., which is but a develop- 

 ment of the gyi-atory motion that forms their most essential characteristic. 



5. The " motion of translation " varies from so low as 9 miles an hour to 43 miles 

 an hour. There is no precise estimate of the velocity of the gyratory motion. 



6. They are liable to dilate and contract in area, tiie contraction always implying 

 a great accession of violence. (See/wsi, p. 183.) 



