Hurricanes and Storms of the West Indies. 309 



passed in nearly a direct course to the northern shores of the 

 Gulf of Mexico and New Orleans, where it arrived on the 16th 

 of the same month, having passed over a distance of twenty- 

 three hundred statute miles in six days after leaving Barba- 

 does.* Many cases of like character might be adduced. 

 . 4. The duration of the storm, at any place within its track, 

 depends upon its extent and the rate of its progressive velocity, 

 as these circumstances are found to determine the time which 

 is required for the storm to pass over any given locality falling 

 ■within its route. Storms of smaller extent, or dimensions, are 

 usually found to move from one place to another with greater 

 rapidity than larger storms. 



5. The course thus pursued by the storm, is found to be en- 

 tirely independent of the direction of wind which it may exhi- 

 bit at the different points over which it passes — the wind in all 

 such storms being found to blow after the manner of a whirl- 

 wind, around a common centre or vortex, during their entire 

 progress, and in a determinate direction or course of rotation, 

 which is from rio-ht to le/t (or in the direction from west to 

 south) horizontally. The direction of the wind, therefore, for 

 the most part, does not coincide with the course of the storm. 



6. In the lower latitudes while drifting to the westward, the 

 direction of the wind at the commencement, or under the most 

 advanced portion of these storms, is from a northern quarter, 

 usually at some point from north-east to north-Avest, and dur- 

 ring the latter part of the gale, it blows from a southern quar- 

 ter of the horizon, at all places where the whole effect of the 

 gale is experienced. 



7. After reaching the more northern latitudes, and while 

 pursuing their course to the northward and eastward, these 

 storms commence with the wind from an eastern or southern 

 quarter, and terminate with the wind from a western quarter, 

 as will appear more distinctly under the three following heads, 

 the latter portion of the storm being usually attended with 

 broken or clear weather. 



8. On the outer portion of the track, north of the parallel 

 of 30°, or within that portion of it which Wes farthest from the 



• The tracks of these and other hurricanes appear on the annexed chart. 



