540 Voyage of the Novara. 



doubt that we were about to do battle with a regular Ty- 

 phoon.* This species of storm, which is very customary at 

 the change of the monsoons in August, September, and 

 October, when the N. E. trade suddenly veers round and 

 becomes the S. "W. monsoon, is, like the tornado of the 

 West Indies, the Pampero of the eastern coast of South 

 America, and the hurricane of the Mauritius, a whirlwind of 

 the most colossal proportions and most tremendous fury, by 

 which the atmosphere is swept in a circle at an astonishing 

 velocity around a central point more or less calm, which 

 does not, however, remain stationary, but is continually 

 progressing, and hence they are usually termed cyclones, or 

 circular storms, to distinguish them from those other storms 

 in which the wind moves in a straight line. It has been 

 reserved for scientific investigation to explain the extra- 

 ordinary regularity of the laws in obedience to which the 

 masses of air, in the case of such storms occurring in the 

 Southern hemisphero, move in the direction of the hands of a 

 clock, whereas in the Northern hemisphere they are rotated 

 in an opposite direction. In like manner, the direction of 

 the centre round which the cyclone is raging has been 

 definitely ascertained, so that, provided with these data, it 

 is not merely possible for the navigator to hold aloof 



* Typhoon, or Tei-fun, a strong wind. While some authors derive this word 

 from the Arabic Tufan, a violent wind, others see in it the giant Typhos of Greek 

 mythology, who was begotten by Tartarus of Earth, and from whom proceeded all 

 that was disastrous and destructive. Whoever has experienced a typhoon wiU most 

 readily acquiesce in the latter derivation. 



