On the prevailing Storms of the Atlantic Coast. 33 
the returning winds of the North American States and the northern 
Atlantic, or falling back again upon the trades by a circuitous route. 
It appears not improbable that these hurricane formations, if this 
term may be applied to our idea of storms, may sometimes originate 
at various positious in the great curve between the windward islands 
of the West Indies, and the capes of North Carolina, and that the 
more southern and windward formations often diverge to the north- 
ward upon a track which, in the lower latitudes, lies eastward of the 
Floridian current, and producing those severe tempests on the At- 
lantic, of which we hear only by the occasional reports of our mar- 
iners; while those storms of a more leeward origin, or which pursue 
amore westerly rouge press upon our coast as they advance 
northward, and thus become more appreciable in their effects, or 
perhaps visit us with their violence. 
The violent hurricanes of the West Indies* having been included 
‘inthe range of these remarks, it will here be observed, that it is not 
deemed to be possible, considering the nature of the atmosphere 
and its constant tendency to an equal distribution, that the wind 
should blow with very great violence at hardly any place on the 
globe, unless by means of a circuitous, or revolving motion, in that 
portion of the atmosphere by which the effect is produced. The 
position of the axis of revolution may sometimes, however, be hori- 
zontal, or may be inclined in any degree from the plane of the hori- 
zon, as in the cases which have been alluded to, and as is probably 
* It has been supposed by some, that the hurricanes of the West Indies, are but 
thunderstorms of extraordinary violence, but an acquaintance with the usual phe- 
nomena of these hurricanes will lead to a different conclusion. The fact is well es- 
tablished that thunderstorms arise in the west and move in an earterly direction. 
Hurricanes, on the contrary, first appear in the eastern or southern quarter of the 
horizon, and advance ina westerly or north-western direction. Violent thunder 
upper region with the lower produce, ordinarily, only those broad flashes of light- 
ning which indicate cnet action upon an extensive surface, with but little ener- 
gy of action. The passage of a hurricane over a hilly country, or mountainous 
island, will however, by a  datecbenes of the general equalibrium, doubtless produce 
violent thunder and lightning. 
It may be added that in the season of hurricanes when the inhabitants of the Cari- 
bean Islands can discern thunder clouds in the horizon, all immediate apprehensions 
of a hurricane are at once removed. 
Vow. 3X.—No.. 1. 5 
