On the Gales and Hurricanes of the Western Atlantic. 127 
on the 11th of November, 1835. This storm was very extensive, — 
spreading from the sea-coast of Virginia into the Canadas, to a limit, 
at present, unknown. ‘The anterior portion of this gale was but 
moderately felt, and its access was noted chiefly, by the direction of 
the wind, and the great fall of the barometer; the violence of the 
storm being chiefly exhibited by the posterior and colder portion of 
the gale, as is common with extensive overland storms. The regu- 
lar progression of this storm in an easterly direction is clearly estab- 
lished, by facts, collected by the writer, from the borders of Lake 
Michigan, to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the sea-coasts of New 
England and Nova Scotia. 
I have thus given a summary description of the route of twelve 
storms, or hurricanes, which have visited the American coasts and 
seas, at various periods, and at different seasons of the year. The 
lines on the chart, which represent the routes, are but approxima- 
tions to the center of the track or course of the several storms; and 
the gales are to be considered as extending their rotative circuit from 
fifty to three hundred miles, or more, on each side of the delinea- 
tions; the superficial extent of the storm being estimated both by 
actual information and by its duration at any point near the central 
portion of its route, as compared with its average rate of progress. 
The figure which appears upon the chart, on tracks No. I, IV, and 
VII, will serve in some degree to illustrate the course of the wind 
in the various portions of the superficies covered by the storm, and 
also, to explain the changes in the direction of the wind which occur 
successively at various points, during the regular progress of the gale. 
The dimensions of the several storms, appear at to have gradually 
expanded during their course. 
Storms of this character do not often act with great violence on 
any considerable extent of interior country to which they may arrive. 
Even upon the coasts on which they enter, such violence is not often 
experienced under the posterior limb of the gale which sweeps back 
from its circuit over the land, the usual woodlands and elevations 
being a sufficient protection. Often, indeed, the interior elevations 
afford such shelter as entirely to neutralize the effect of the wind at 
and near the surface, and the presence and passage of the hurricane 
is, in such cases, to be noted chiefly by the unusual depression, 
which the great whirling movement of the incumbent stratum of air 
produces in the mercury of the barometer, which thus indicates the 
presence or passage of the hurricane, in positions where the force of 
the wind is not felt at all, or only with a moderate degree of violence. 
