STORMS, HUERICANES, AND TYPHOONS. 415 



CISCO. She encountered the ill-fated steamer's gale, and thus 

 describes it: '^December 24:th. Latitude 39° 15' north, longitude 

 62° 32' west. First part threatening weather ; shortened sail ; 

 at 4 P.M. close-reefed the top-sails and furled the courses. At 8 

 P.M. took in fore and mizen top-sails ; hove to under close-reefed 

 main top-sail and spencer, the ship lying with her lee rail under 

 w^ater, nearly on her beam-ends. At 1 30 A.M. the fore and 

 main top-gallant-masts went over the side, it blowing a perfect 

 hurricane. At 8 A.M., moderated ; a sea took away jib-boom 

 and bowsprit cap. In my thirty- one years' experience at sea, I 

 have never seen a typhoon or hurricane so severe. Lost two men 

 overboard — saved one. Stove skylight, broke my barometer, 

 etc., etc." Severe gales in this part of the Atlantic — i. e., on the 

 polar side of the calm belt of Cancer — rarely occur during the 

 months of June, July, August, and September. This appears to 

 be the time when the fiends of the storm are most busily at work 

 in the West Indies. During the remainder of the year, these 

 extra- tropical gales, for the most part, come from the north-west. 

 But the winter is the most famous season for these gales. That 

 is the time when the Gulf Stream has brought the heat of summer 

 and placed it (§ 172) in closest proximity to the extremest cold 

 of the north. And there should, therefore, it would seem, be a 

 conflict between these extremes ; consequently, great disturbances 

 in the air, and a violent rush from the cold to the warm. In like 

 manner, the gales that most prevail in the extra-tropics of the 

 southern hemisphere come from the pole and the west, ^. e., 

 south-west. 



808. Storm and Kain Charts for the Atlantic Ocean have 

 Storm and Rain Charts, already boou published by the Observatory, and 

 others for the other oceans are in process of construction. The 

 object of such charts is to show the directions and relative fre- 

 quency of calms, fogs, rain, thunder, and lightning. These charts 

 are very instructive. They show that that half of the atmo- 

 spherical coating of the earth which covers the northern hemi- 

 sphere — if we may take as a type of the whole what occurs on 

 either side of the equator in the Atlantic Ocean — is in a much 

 less stable condition than that which covers the southern. 



