32 



EEPOET— 1856. 



October. The second was the " great Cuba hurricane," which destroyed more than 

 a hundred ships at Havannah, Jamaica, &c. The loss at Havannah alone was 

 estimated at ,£1,000,000. Its diameter already exceeded 1000 miles. Passing over 

 Cuba on the 3rd and 4th of October, it skirted the coasts of the United States, and 

 struck off eastward into the North Atlantic Ocean at Newfoundland on the 8th 

 of October. Smaller cyclones, waterspouts, &c., as usual, followed in its rear. 



The barometer in Britain, as shown by the annexed curve, distinctly recognizes 

 the arrival of each member of this chain of aerial eddies. Tempests, rains, unusually 

 heavv floods, and destructive inundations marked their progress over France, Ger- 

 many, Italy, &c. 



1846. — On the 10th of September, 1846 (Col. Reid, 'Development of the Law of 

 Storms,' p. 371), a great cyclone formed between the islands of Trinidad, Marguerita, 

 Grenada, and Tobago. " As it advanced, its force increased, until it became a tempest 

 of a furious kind. Passing to the westward of Bermuda, it blew there a hard gale 

 on the l7th and 18tb, with the centre a little to the eastward of Newfoundland, 

 where it did great damage to the town of St. John's, and was felt as far as 19° W., 

 50° N. on the eastern side of the Atlantic." We have here evidence that this cyclone 

 came from the West India Islands to the mouth of the English Channel. The 

 barometric readings given by Col. Reid show that the south-eastern margin passed 

 over Bermuda between the 13th and 20th of September. The accompanying baro- 

 metric curves for Rouen and the Orkneys during September and October 1846, prove 

 that the front of this cyclone first aifected the barometer at Rouen on the ] 7th of 

 September. 



This was followed by a series of cyclonic paroxysms, of which the most violent 

 has been examined in detail by Mr. Redfield. It began in the Caribbean Sea on the 

 6th of October, and passed over Havannah on the 11th, wrecking more than 100 

 ships, and sending the mercurial column down to 27'70 inches. On the 12th nearly 

 the whole town of Rey West,in Mexico, was destroyed, and twenty ships driven ashore. 

 On the 13th it swept over Washington and New York, and started across the 

 Atlantic from Newfoundland on the 14th of October. 



"Bstmuda 



1846, 



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