THE POWER OF WIND. IIQ 



" When we turn our back to the wind, the Vortex will be 

 on our left in the Northern, and on our right in the Southern 

 Hemisphere." * 



The force of the wind is generally expressed by 

 measuring its velocity per hour in miles; though to 

 the ordinary mind this would give but a very indefinite 

 idea of what it was intended to convey; and a true 

 test will probably be found by reducing it to the 

 pressure of the gale upon a given surface, such as a 

 square inch, or square foot. All such comparisons, 

 however, give merely an approximate idea of the 

 enormous force which wind is capable of exerting on 

 such occasions. In the West Indies, for instance, we 

 have heard it asserted, on what seemed to be good 

 and credible authority, that during the fiercest phase 

 of a violent hurricane the wind has actually been 

 known to blow men away, like bits of stick or 

 branches of trees; and to dash them against rocks, f 

 or whatever happened to stand in the way, killing 

 them instantaneously; houses also of solid con- 

 struction are frequently overturned, and wrecked as 

 completely as if they had been bombarded by heavy 

 artillery. 



The area of rotation of some of the greatest of these 

 storms has been estimated as an elliptical figure some 

 500 or 600, or even 1000 miles across, and the 

 velocity of the whirlwind as great as 140 or even 

 150 miles an hour. ** This speed, however, we are 



* See the Compendium of Geography and Travel for Central and 

 South America, by H. W. Bates, 1878, pp. 144 46. 



f A case of this kind came under our notice in Ireland, during the 

 great cyclonic storm of January 1884 a man named Gavin being 

 killed in this way at Carn Hill, in the County of Monaghan. 



The Law of Storms, by W. H. Rosser, 1876. 



** Ibid. 



