318 Mr Redfield's Observations on the 



Track No. III. is that of the destructive hurricane which 

 swept over the Windward Islands on the 17th of August 1827 ; 



between 12° 30', and 14° 30' of north latitude. On the 12th it arrived on the 

 southern coast of the Island of Porto Rico. From the I2th to the 13th it 

 swept over the island of Hayti or St Domingo, and extended its influence 

 as far southward as Jamaica. On the 13th it raged on the eastern portion of 

 Cuba, sweeping in its course over large districts, if not the whole of that ex- 

 tensive island. On the 14th it was at Havanna, towards the west end of the 

 same island. Of its progress on the 15th we have no distinct accounts," 

 but on the 16th and 17lh it arrived on the northern shores of the Gulf of 

 Mexico, in about the 30th degree of north latitude, raging simullaneouslj 

 at Pensacola, Mobile, and New Orleans, where its effects were continued till 

 the 18th ; thus having occupied a period of six days in its passage from 

 Barbadoes to New Orleans. 



From the coast of the Gulf of Mexico the storm entered upon the terri- 

 tories of the adjoining States, where it appears to have spent itself in heavy 

 rains. If its peculiar action was longer continued, it must have been only 

 in the higher atmosphere, as we have no account of any violent eflTects at the 

 surface nearer than the southern States. 



When accounts of hurricanes were formerly received, as occurring at dif- 

 ferent Islands, on various dates, with marked differences also in the direc- 

 tion of the wind, it was taken for granted, that those violent winds were 

 rectilinear in their course, and that such accounts, in most cases, related to 

 different storms. We now discover, however, that there is no difficulty in 

 tracing these storms successively from one island or locality to another, and 

 the direction of the wind at any one point or place is found to have no con- 

 nexion with the general progress or direction of the storm. 



At most of the islands, during the late hurricane, the winds in the earlier 

 part of the storm were from a northern quarter, and in its later periods, from 

 a southern quarter of the horizon ; from which it results that the gyratory 

 action was from right to left, as in the storms which pass to the northward of 

 the great islands, and along our Atlantic coast. The distance passed over 

 by the storm in its passage from Barbadoes to New Orleans, is equal to twenty- 

 three hundred statute miles. The time of passage being six days, gives an ave- 

 rage rate of about sixteen miles an hour, which accords with the rate of pro- 

 gress which I had previously ascribed to the storms of that region. 



This hurricane appeared in a more southern latitude than those which are 

 described in my article before mentioned, but pursued the same general di- 

 rection as that which occurred at the same season in 1830, passing over or to 

 southward of the great islands, and across the Gulf of Mexico, with a course 

 curving northwardly as it approached the American coast. Hence it follows, 

 that its atmosphere must have subsequently passed over a considerable por- 

 tion, if not the whole, of the Atlantic States, according to the prevailing ten- 

 dency of the general atmospheric current in this part of the globe. In its 

 progress from Barbadoes to New Orleans, the storm was constantly enlarg- 



* On the IStb the gale was encounteied off the Tortugai. 



