1 



Storms of the West Indies. 25 



of an island upon which a storm first enters or blows, also suf- 

 fers most from the early part of the gale ; but its latter or reced- 

 ing part often acts with the greatest fury upon the opposite side 

 of the island, which had previously derived some degree of shel- 

 ter from the intermediate elevations, and other obstacles, op- 

 posed to the force of the wind, the benefit of which is now lost 

 by its counter direction from the open ocean. Owing to similar 

 causes, the force of the storm is sometimes very unequal at dif- 

 ferent places situated in nearly the same part of its track, and 

 such inequality, as we have before intimated, necessarily pertains 

 to two places, one of which is near the centre, the other towards 

 the margin of the route. 



Of the multitude of facts by which this part of the subject 

 might be illustrated, we shall only state, that, in the late hurri- 

 cane at Barbadoes (that of August 1831), the trees near the 

 northern coast of that island, lying from N. NW. to S. SE., had 

 been prostrated by a northerly wind in the earlier part of the 

 storm, while in the interior, and some other parts of the island, 

 they were found to lie from south to north, having fallen in the 

 later period of the gale : That after the same hurricane, advices 

 which were received from the islands of St Croix and Porto 

 Rico (which lay near the northern margin of its track), stated that 

 no hurricane had been experienced at these islands ; but it after- 

 wards appeared that some portions of these islands had sufl^ered 

 damage from this hurricane in the night of the 12th to 13th of 

 August, two days after it passed over the Island of Barbadoes : 

 That the sea islands which border the coast of Georgia and the 

 Carolinas, are known to suffer greatly from these tempests, while 

 little or no injury is sustained in the interior, at a distance of a 

 few miles from the coast. One of the most striking characteris- 

 tics of these storms is the heavy swell which in open sea is often 

 known to extend itself on both sides of the track, entirely beyond 

 the range of the gale by which it was produced. The last hur- 

 ricane to which we have alluded, threw its swell with tremendous 

 force upon the northern shores of Jamaica, having passed to the 

 northward of that island. 



A variety of deductions may be drawn from the general facts 

 which we have stated, some of which are deeply interesting to 

 the philoso])her and votary of science. For ourselves, we dis- 



