On the Gales and Hurricanes of the Western Atlantic. 119 
fected by the violence of the wind, which at the same time may be 
raging with destructive fury at the distance of a few leagues. The 
writer has knowledge of many such examples. . 
It has been suggested that ‘“ the larboard tack is the proper one to 
lie-to on, as the wind will then be found to draw aft ;’’ but this will 
frequently prove erroneous, as the wind may draw either way, on 
either tack, according to the position and course of the ship, in the 
storm, and the extent and rate of progress of the latter. In the case 
of the fleet which encountered the gale of 1782, it was probably the 
best course to carry sail to the northward at the very commencement 
of the gale, and as far and as long as possible. By this means, the 
fleet might perhaps, have been drawn as far northward as the point 
A on the figure, and the change of wind to the northward and west- 
ward would then have been rendered more gradual. The chief dif- 
ficulty and danger is when the direction of the wind at the first set- 
ting in of the gale, is found to be nearly at right angles with the 
known courses of the storms in the region where the gale is encoun- 
tered, and it is then desirable to pursue such a course as to avoid, if 
possible, falling into the heart of the storm. 
e following passage is found in a late edition of the Atlantic 
Memoir, at the head of the article on Hurricanes. 
“A hurricane is a tempest of the most extraordinary violence, 
forming a kind of imperfect vortex, towards the center of which 
the wind proceeds, successively and abruptly, from different points 
' of the horizon. Of such phenomena, the most violent and destruc- 
tive in the western hemisphere, are known to originate in or near the 
West Indies; and they commonly proceed in a cycloidal line, from 
their point of origin, to the W. N..W., N. W. and N.; or if limited 
to the West Indian sea, from E. S. E. to W. N. W. as well as from 
W. N. W. to E. S. E.”—Memoir, page 97, Tth edition. 
and as involving, in the case of storms, the production of rain, and all the other 
incidental phenomena which result from such organized action. The true char- 
aul la discussion of their specific character, and of their ageney in the production 
phenomena, even if the ability were possessed, 
would be foreign to our present object. It is believed, however, t that a proper de- 
t of this subject would do much to illustrate, in a clear and satisfactory 
manner, the formation and production of storm-clouds ad rain, and especially of 
suniatad Mall,Ain:well-ax all violent electri c phenomena. 
