Hurricanes and Storms of the West Indies, ^c. 317 



bean Sea, this hurricane entered upon the coast of Yucatan, on 

 the night of June 27th, having moved over the entire route 

 from Trinidad to the western shore of the Bay of Honduras 

 in a little more than one hundred hours, a distance of about 

 seventeen hundred nautical miles, which is equal to nearly 

 seventeen miles an hour. I have no account of this storm af- 

 ter it crossed the peninsula of Yucatan, and it is probable that 

 it did not again act with violence upon the ocean level. Its 

 course or tack to Honduras was N. 74° W. 



Track No. II, that of the memorable hurricane which de- 

 solated Barbadoes on the night of August ]0. 1831, and which 

 passed Porto-Rico on the 12th, Aux-Cayes, and St Jago de 

 Cuba on the 13th, Matanzas on the 14th, was encountered ofF 

 the Tortugas on the 15th ; in the Gulf of Mexico on the 16th, 

 and was at Mobile, Pensacola, and New Orleans on the 17th; 

 a distance of 2000 nautical miles in about 150 hours, equal to 

 something more than 13^ miles an hour.* Its course, until it 

 crossed the tropic of Cancer, was N. 64° W., or W. N. W. 

 nearly. In pursuing its northern course, after leaving the 

 ocean level, it must have encountered the mountain region of the 

 Alleganies, and was perhaps disorganized by the resistance op- 

 posed by these elevations. It appears, however, to have caused 

 heavy rains in a large extent of country lying north-eastward 

 of the Gulf of Mexico. t 



* Mr Purdy states that this gale was felt at Natches, 300 miles up the 

 Mississijjpi. 



t In an article which was published in the April number of the American 

 Journal of Science, I attempted to shew that storms and hurricanes consist in the 

 regular gyratory motion or action of a progressive body of atmosphere, which ac- 

 tion is the sole cause of the violence which they may exhibit ; and that the 

 storms of the Atlantic Ocean are drifted in a determinate direction, conform- 

 ing to tliat of the general atmospheric current of the region in which they 

 occur. The late hurricane in the West Indies, having from its peculiar vio- 

 lence attracted considerable attention, I am induced to offer you the follow- 

 ing notices of its appearance and progress, which have been obtained from 

 various sources. 



The earliest accounts are from the Island of Barbadoes, where the hurri- 

 cane raged with great violence on the night following the lOth of August. 

 On the 11th it passed over the islands of St Vincent, and St Lucia, extend- 

 ing a portion of its influence to Martinico and the neighbouring islands on 

 the north, and to Grenada on the south, but exhibiting its principal violence 



VOL. XXIV. NO. XLVIII.— APUIL 1 c38. Y 



