HUEEICANES AT REUNION. 277 



across the sea tlie wind doubles the promontory that arrested it, 

 and the ravages are instantly recommenced. Since the time of 

 Columbus, the first European who contemplated the hurricanes of 

 the Antilles, thousands of ships have been swallowed up during the 

 revolving tempests of the tropical seas, either in the depths of the 

 ports and roads, or in the seas that bathe the coasts of America, 

 China, Hindostan, and the islands of the Indian Ocean. Such a 

 cyclone as that of Calcutta in 1864, or of Ilavanna in 1846, has 

 shattered more than 150 large ships in a few hours ; such another 

 catastrophe of the same kind, especially that which passed over the 

 delta of the Ganges in October, 1737, drowned more than 20,000 

 persons in the rising waters. 



In the midst of the ocean the dangers which ships run are lesa 

 than in badly enclosed roads of the coast ; but the sensations experi- 

 enced by the seamen must be all the more lively, by their being com- 

 pletely isolated and lost in the awful whirlwind. Around them the 

 daylight is darkened, and darker than night one might say, since the 



Fig. 111.— Calm during the hurricane at RCunion, Feb. 17, 1761 



