252 PHILOSOPHY OF STORMS. 



In the great Barbadoes hurricane, of 1831, August the 

 10th and llth, as given by the author of the West Indian, 

 the wind began N., varying from N. N. E. to N. N. W., 

 during the first half of the storm, but strongest from the 

 N. W. and N. N. W., and terminated from the S. E., though 

 once it reached round, for a few minutes, near the end of 

 the gale, to E., and soon got back to S. E., increasing to a 

 hurricane, but unaccompanied with those fatal gusts which, 

 from the western quarter, had effected so much destruction. 

 The hurricane terminated two hours and a quarter after this, 

 with strong breezes from E. S. E., and an hour after that, 

 the dense body of cloud began to break up. (Page 38.) 



Luke Howard, in his second volume, gives an account of 

 a hurricane in St. Lucia on the 21st October, 1818. " The 

 wind is stated to have set in N. W. at daybreak, and raged 

 with tremendous violence, with occasional falls of rain, 

 until 3, P. M. ; when becoming southerly, it abated, but did 

 not immediately cease." 



It would appear, from the following account, that in lati- 

 tudes as high as 25, the storm sets in N. E. and terminates 

 S. W. Mr. Howard, in his first volume, speaking of the 

 Nassau hurricane of the 26th July, 1813, says : " At about 

 half past 2, P. M., the hurricane attained its greatest height, 

 and its acme continued, without interval, until 5, when it 

 suddenly ceased, and in the space of half an hour succeeded 

 a calm, so perfect that it can be compared only to that of 

 death after the most dreadful convulsions. The inhabitants 

 of the colony, well knowing the nature of hurricanes, took 

 every precautionary measure within their reach, during the 

 calm, or lull, to prepare for the second part, expected from 

 the S. W., and which set in with great fury at about 

 6 o'clock, and continued until midnight, when it considera- 

 bly abated, and soon after totally ceased. The first part 

 of the storm from the N. E., raged without intermission, 

 but the latter part appeared in heavy blasts of a few min- 

 utes' duration. 



