EXAMINATION OF REID'S STORMS. 253 



If the reader will refer back to the investigation of the 

 great Barbadoes hurricane of 1780, he will find evidence of 

 the most decisive character on this point. By examining 

 all the accounts of the beginning of the storm at Barba- 

 does, he will discover, that though the wind began to blow 

 from the N. E. with some violence, from the oblique force 

 produced by the trade winds, which in this region are 

 known to blow all the year, yet it backed round to N. W., 

 and blew for many hours with its greatest violence, and 

 then changed back again by the E. to the S. E., beyond 

 which it did not go. Now, as the centre of the storm cer- 

 tainly passed within a few miles of the western side of this 

 island, as shown before, for it passed between Barbadoes 

 and the Albemarle, which left Barbadoes during the storm, 

 the facts furnished here are even more conclusive than if it 

 had been merely stated that the wind commenced N. W. 

 and terminated S. E. 



It is hardly necessary to remark, that as this storm, after 

 passing Barbadoes, travelled nearly N. W., and not W. N. W., 

 the conditions required by the "test" are fully answered. 



In concluding the examination of this storm, I earnestly 

 recommend to gentlemen who embrace the whirlwind theory 

 of storms, to abstain from laying down rules to the practical 

 navigator, founded on this doctrine, until it is better estab- 

 lished than it is at present. And especially I recommend 

 this course to Mr. Redfield, lest the practical evils arising 

 from unfounded rules may diminish the lustre which his 

 great discovery of the translation of storms in space, and 

 their continuity in time, is beginning to shed round his name. 



Storm of 18th August, 1830. 



162. Col. Reid has copied into his work the documents 

 furnished by Mr. Redfield concerning the storm of August, 



