l6o LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



storm-track may extend to or even slightly overlap the 

 land, in which case scudding before the gale would bring 

 the ship upon a lee-shore. And in this way many gal- 

 lant ships have, doubtless, suffered wreck. 



The danger of the sailor is obviously greater, how- 

 ever, when he is overtaken by the storm on the inner 

 side of the storm-c. Here he has to encounter the 

 double force of the cyclonic whirl and of the advancing 

 storm-system, instead of the difference of the two 

 motions, as on the outer side of the storm-track. His 

 chance of escape will depend on his distance from the 

 central path of the cyclone. If near to this, it is equally 

 dangerous for him to attempt to scud to the safer side 

 of the track, or to beat against the wind by the shorter 

 course, which would lead him out of the storm-d on its 

 inner side. It has been shown by Colonel Sir W. Keid 

 that this is the quarter in which vessels have been most 

 frequently lost. 



But even the danger of this most dangerous quarter 

 admits of degrees. It is greatest where the storm is 

 sweeping round the most curved part of its track, 

 which happens in about latitude twenty-five or thirty 

 degrees. In this case a ship may pass twice through 

 the vortex of the storm. Here hurricanes have worked 

 their most destructive effects. And hence it is that 

 sailors dread, most of all, that part of the Atlantic 

 near Florida and the Bahamas, and the region of 

 the Indian Ocean which lies south of Bourbon and 

 Mauritius. 



To show how important it is that captains should 



