TORNADOES. 157 



4 changing of the monsoons.' ' During the interreg- 

 num,' writes Maury, i the fiends of the storm hold 

 their terrific sway.' Becalmed often for a day or two,, 

 seamen hear moaning sounds in the air, forewarning 

 them of the coming storm. Then, suddenly, the winds 

 break loose from the forces which have for a while con- 

 trolled them, and ' seem to rage with a fury that would 

 break up the fountains of the deep.' 



In the North Indian seas hurricanes rage at the 

 same season as in the West Indies. 



In the China seas occur those fearful gales known 

 among sailors as typhoons ' or white squalls.' These 

 take place at the changing of the monsoons. Generated, 

 like the West Indian hurricanes, at a distance of some 

 ten or twelve degrees from the equator, typhoons sweep 

 in a curve similar to that followed by the Atlantic 

 storms around the East Indian Archipelago, and the- 

 shores of China, to the Japanese Islands. 



There occur land-storms, also, of a cyclonic charac- 

 ter in the valley of the Mississippi. ( I have often ob- 

 served the paths of such storms,' says Maury, ' through 

 the forests of the Mississippi. There the track of 

 these tornadoes is called a " wind-road," because they 

 make an avenue through the wood straight along, and 

 as clear of trees as if the old denizens of the forest 

 had been cleared with an axe. I have seen trees three 

 or four feet in diameter torn up by the roots, and the 

 top, with its limbs, lying next the hole whence the 

 root came.' Another writer, who was an eye-witness 

 to the progress of one of these American land-storms, 



