EXAMINATION OF REID'S STORMS. 249 



that it would require an outward motion of the air from the 

 centre of two hundred and eighty feet per second to make 

 the barometer fall an inch and a quarter, and of course 

 a corresponding motion downwards in the centre of the 

 storm. And Mr. Redfield says "he has but little ob- 

 jection to my formula on this point, subject to such cor- 

 rections for countervailing tendencies as the case requires." L 

 Now, as the wind tended inwards in this storm, the cause 

 here alleged for the fall of the barometer is not the true 

 one. 



But Mr. Redfield has proposed a means of testing my 

 theory in the following paragraph : 



" Test of Mr. Espy's Theory. The truth or error of 

 Mr. Espy's theory may be ascertained by a very simple 

 test. The hurricanes in the West Indies are known to move 

 towards the W. N. W. nearly. Now, if this theory be true, at 

 those islands which are in the centre of the storm's path, 

 and where the gale is of the greatest duration, the wind 

 will set in at about W. N. W., or exactly opposite to the 

 course of the storm, and when its centre has passed over, 

 will shift suddenly to E. S. E., and continue violent in this 

 quarter till the storm is over. But if the gale be a whirl- 

 wind, as the facts seem to show, the wind at such places 

 will set in at about N. N. E., and in the middle of the gale 

 will shift nearly to S. S. W. the wind varying from these 

 points, and veering more gradually on either side, in pro- 

 portion to the distance from the centre of the storm's track. 

 That this corresponds, mainly, to the facts of the case, will 

 hardly be doubted by those who institute the inquiry. The 

 same test may also be applied to these storms, as they move 

 in a N. E. direction along the shores of the United States ; 

 where, according to Mr. Espy's views, the gale, on the cen- 

 tre of its path, should blow, for the first part of its dura- 



1 See Journ. Frank. Inst. for Feb., 1837. 

 32 



