272 PHILOSOPHY OF STORMS. 



This storm seems to have commenced on the 14th, near 

 the middle of the Bay of Bengal, and increased in violence 

 until it reached the coast, moving towards the west, or west 

 by north, with a velocity of about five and a half miles an 

 hour. On reaching the coast, it seems to have broke up 

 suddenly. I have copied, from Dr. Piddington's account, the 

 following logs, and embodied the whole in two charts, by 

 means of which the reader can see at a glance of the eye, 

 how the wind blew on the evening of the 15th, and on the 

 morning of the 16th, at which times the storm was fully 

 formed and at its maximum violence. It is worthy of par- 

 ticular remark, that to the ships as far as 91 or 92 east 

 longitude, the wind freshened up from the eastward, and 

 continued in that quarter during the whole of the gale, 

 while all the other ships, which had the violence of the gale 

 to pass over them, had the gale first iu some westerly direc- 

 tion, and last from some point easterly. From this circum- 

 stance alone, it follows (as the storm itself certainly moved 

 towards the west) that the wind blew inwards towards the 

 central parts of the storm. 



Again, as Hope Island, near Coringa, was undoubtedly a 

 little north of the central line along which the storm passed 

 in its motion towards the west, and as the wind there, on 

 the near approach of the centre of the storm, raged with 

 great violence from the N. W., and changed round by the 

 N. to N. E. and E., and next day to the'S. E. This is an- 

 other circumstance which proves that the motion of the wind 

 was inwards. If this storm was a whirlwind, the wind at 

 Hope Island, having once blown from N. W., must have 

 veered round by west. As to the barometer, its fall seems 

 to be confined to the limits of the storm, which was probably 

 not more than two or three hundred miles in diameter. By 

 examining the records, given by Dr. Piddington, I find that 

 the barometer fell from midnight of the 16th, to midnight 

 of the 17th, at Coringa, about an inch, whilst at Calcutta, 



