On the Gales and Hurricanes of the Western Atlantic. 117 
latitudes of the Atlantic, encounter a gale which shall blow violent- 
ly from the west, and then shift suddenly to the east. This cannot 
happen until storms in this region shall be found pursuing a retro- 
grade course, or else spinning from left to right, instead of from right 
to left as they have heretofore done; or, in other words, till a new 
system of terrestrial physics shall have been established by the Great 
Author of nature. 
The interest of this subject to navigators, and the neglect into 
which this branch of philosophic inquiry has been suffered to fall, 
will be a sufficient apology for some additional remarks on these 
storms. 
Those who adopt the views which I have maintained on this sub- 
ject, will doubtless be able to explain, in a satisfactory manner, the 
facts which are contained in the following statement, found in the 
paragraph next preceding that which we have quoted from the Me- 
moir; namely, “That while one vessel has been lying-to in a heavy 
gale of wind, another, not more than thirty leagues distant, has at 
the very same time been in another gale equally heavy, and lying-to 
with the wind in quite an opposite direction.” 
This statement is obviously to be understood as applicable to two 
vessels falling under the two opposite sides or portions of the same 
storm, where the wind in its regular circuit of rotation, must, of 
course, blow from the opposite quarters of the horizon. e 
suppose one of the vessels to be at A and the other at B, in the 
annexed figure. 
The storm in pursuing its course from W towards N, will strike 
the first mentioned vessel in the direction which is shown by the 
