164 PHILOSOPHY OF STORMS. 



walls outwards, as if by explosion, and tear up the floors of 

 others and leave the walls standing ? Are they ever attended 

 with hail ? Do great storms remain for some time stationary 

 on reaching an island, and what evidence is there of a lull 

 or calm in the centre of a storm? Has the barometer ever 

 been observed at the moment of this lull, and what is the 

 greatest depression recorded by a credible witness. Does 

 the rain cease at the moment of the lull of the wind, and 

 are the clouds seen at the same time to move on all sides to- 

 wards the zenith ? 



In the case of violent storms in the torrid zone, do they 

 always set in from some western point, and terminate with 

 the wind from some eastern point ? If they set in from a 

 point far north of west, does the wind veer round by the 

 north, and if from a point far south of west, does the wind 

 veer round by the south ? If this question should be an- 

 swered in the affirmative, the discovery will be of immense 

 advantage to navigation, for it will afford an indubitable 

 proof that the wind blows towards the storm ; and the 

 knowledge of this fact will enable the mariner to avoid the 

 storm, by sailing in a direction from the point to which the 

 storm is advancing. Suppose, for example, that it has been 

 discovered, that near the equator the storms travel towards 

 the west, and that the wind, in great storms, blows towards 

 the centre of the storm, and a violent gale sets in from the 

 north west, it is manifest, if the mariner sails towards the 

 north east, he will soon be out of reach of the storm ; whilst, 

 on the contrary, if he should direct his course southwardly, 

 he .would penetrate the very heart of the storm, and thus be 

 exposed to all its violence. It is then a matter of high im- 

 portance to ascertain the course, which storms travel in all 

 the different latitudes. If the uppermost current of the at- 

 mosphere gives direction to violent storms, it is highly pro- 

 bable, that near the equator they travel towards the west. 

 For as the air at the equator is lighter than the air at high 



