184 LIGHT SCIENCE FOR LEISURE HOURS. 



is a channel of heated that is, rarefied air. Into 

 this channel the denser atmosphere on both sides is 

 continually pouring, with greater or less strength. 

 When a storm begins in the Atlantic, it always makes 

 for this channel, " and, reaching it, turns and follows 

 it in its course, sometimes entirely across the Atlantic." 

 " The southern points of America and Africa have 

 won for themselves," says Maury, " the name of c the 

 stormy capes,' but there is not a storm-fiend in the wide 

 ocean can out-top that which rages along the Atlan- 

 tic coasts of North America. The China seas and the 

 North Pacific may vie in the fury of their gales with 

 this part of the Atlantic, but Cape Horn and the Cape 

 of Good Hope cannot equal them, certainly in fre- 

 quency, nor do I believe, in fury." "We read of a 

 West -Indian storm so violent, that "it forced the 

 Gulf Stream back to its sources, and piled up the 

 water to a height of thirty feet in the Gulf of Mexico. 

 The ship < Ledbury Snow ' attempted to ride out the 

 storm. When it abated, she found herself high up on 

 the dry land, and discovered that she had let go her 

 anchor among the tree-tops on Elliott's Key." 



By a like reasoning we can account for the cyclonic 

 storms prevailing in the North Pacific Ocean. Nor 

 do the tornadoes which rage in parts of the United 

 States present any serious difficulty. The region 

 along which these storms travel is the valley of the 

 great Mississippi. This river at certain seasons is con- 



