CLIMATE &C, NEAR THE MISSISSIPPI. 53 



upon the whole are the most agreeable months of the year. Sud- 

 den gusts or storms of wind and rain generally proceed from 

 N. or N. N. E. and their violence is only of a few minutes 

 duration, although in that short time, it frequently happens 

 that trees are torn up by the roots or snapt short off, houses 

 stript of their covering, fences thrown down and crops greatly 

 damaged and blown about in the air. — Since I have resided 

 in this country, two or three hurricanes only, of great magni- 

 tude, have ravaged New Orleans and its vicinity. Two of 

 them burst forth in the months of August of the years 1119 

 and 17 80; I was at New Orleans during the first of those two. 

 More than half of the town was stript of its covering, many 

 houses thrown down in town and country, no ship or vessel 

 of anv kind was to be seen on the river next morning. The 

 river which at this season is low was forced over its banks, and 

 the crops which were not yet collected, disappeared from the 

 face of the earth. The forests for some leagues above and 

 below New Orleans assumed the dreary appearance of winter, 

 the woods over large tracts were laid flat with the ground, and 

 it became impossible to traverse the forests, but with immense 

 labour on account of the multitude of logs, limbs and branches 

 with which the earth was every were strewed within the ex- 

 tent of the hurricane; which might be estimated at about V2 

 miles due North and South, New Orleans being in the centre 

 of its passage. The partial hurricanes which frequently traverse 

 this territory do not merit the*name and ought rather be called 

 whirlwinds, which seldom last above 5 to 10 minutes, occu- 

 pying a narrow vein from 50 to 500 feet in width; whereas 

 that which I witnessed at New Orleans was of some hours du- 

 ration; it continued blowing from the East or S. E. for two or 

 three hours with undescribable impetuosity, after which suc- 

 ceeded all at once a most profound and awful calm, so incon- 

 ceivably terrific that the stoutest heart stood appaled and could 

 not look upon it without feeling a secret horror, as it' nature 

 were preparing to resolve herself again into chaos. The body 

 became totally unelastic and a disposition was felt to abandon 

 one'self prostrate upon the ground as if despair alone at that 

 moment, could find abode in the human mind, entirely dives- 

 ted of all energy. How is this extraordinary effect to be ac- 



