316 Mr RedfieWs Observations on the 



So strong is the influence of our established modes of think- 

 ing on this subject, that it seems to be difficult, even for those 

 who admit the rotative character of these hurricanes, to under- 

 stand correctly the true bearing and relations of the different 

 phases of the wind, which are presented as two or more points 

 or places visited by the same storm, unless the subject has been 

 thoroughly and carefully studied. Speculative opinions, also, 

 upon the course of a storm, are usually, if not always, founded 

 upon the erroneous notion of a rectilinear course in the wind. 

 In the accounts received of the hurricane at Barbadoes on the 

 3d of September 1835, which raged for a few hours from E.N. 

 E., fears were expressed for the safety of the islands to the 

 northward ; but subsequent intelligence from Guadaloupe and 

 Martinico, shewed that the gale had not extended to these 

 islands. Had the direction and changes of the wind in this 

 storm been viewed in their true relations, it would have been 

 perceived that the heart of the gale must have passed to the 

 southward of Barbadoes ; and, as a general rule in the West 

 India latitudes, where the onset of the storm is found to be in 

 the general direction of the trade-wind, or more eastward, the 

 observer may consider himself as under the northern verge of 

 the gale ; but if the onset of the gale be from the north-west- 

 ward, veering afterwards by west to the southern quarter, the 

 heart of the storm will be found to have passed to the north- 

 ward of the point of observation, the latter being under the 

 southern margin of the gale. 



In order to illustrate the foregoing statements, I annex a 

 chart of the Western Atlantic, on which is delineated the route 

 of several hurricanes and storms, as derived from numerous 

 accounts which are in my possession, by which their progress 

 is specifically identified from day to day, during that part of 

 their route which appears on the chart. 



The route designed as No. I, is that of the hurricane which 

 visited the islands of Trinidad, Tobago, and Grenada, on the 

 23d of June 1831. Pursuing its course through the Carib- 

 bean Sea, it was subsequently encountered by H. M. Schooner 

 Minx, and other vessels, and its swell was thrown with great 

 force upon the south-eastern shores of Jamaica on the 25th, 

 while passing that island, where the wind, at this time, was 

 light from the northward. After sweeping through the Carib- 



