142 Strictures on Dove's Essay "On the Lata of 



the fiercest raging of the storm from opposite direct 



shown in the register of observations at St Thome 



fid pause which fills the heart of the bravest sailor 



fearful expectation, receives a simple explanation 



of 



petal inblowing, because two winds blowing towards each other 

 from opposite directions must gradually neutralize each other, 

 and thus their intensity must diminish more and more in ap- 

 proaching their place of meeting. This takes place on a great 

 scale as respects the trade winds, and if the centripetal view of 

 hurricanes were a just one, the same effect would be necessarily 

 seen as the centre of the storm passed over the station of obst 

 Hon. But the phenomena shewn by observation are widely 



difi 



fi 



>f 



M 



and $h. 10m. the hurricane recommenced as suddenly as it had 

 intermitted. How can this be reconciled with the meeting of two 

 winds f" 



117. I have made the preceding quotation from Prof. Dove's 

 essay, conceiving it to contain evidence which must be fatal to 

 the hypothesis which it is intended to prop. It establishes that 

 in hurricanes the wind is liable suddenly to subside from its ex- 

 treme violence to a calm, and then as suddenly to recommence 



blowing with as great violence as ever in an opposite direction. 





dfield 



fiercest 



f additional objec- 

 that, in extensive 



ed so as to leave a dead calm during the interval which takes 

 place between two opposite winds ; since in such storms, where 

 they have a diameter not less than three hundred miles, for the 

 same station to be exposed successively on opposite sides of the 

 zone, where the wind is most violent, the storm must move at 

 least one hundred miles, which would require from three to four 

 hours. 



118. Referring the reader to the essay above mentioned, I will 

 urge, in reply to the query already quoted, that Prof. Dove's alle- 

 gation that "winds blowing from opposite quarters will neutral- 

 ize each other," arises from his forgetting that agreeably to the 

 hypothesis which he is striving to confute, they are caused by a 

 deficiency of pressure at the axis of the storm producing an up- 



