THEORY OF HURRICANES, ETC. 33.3 



never was a hurricane, tornado, or gale, in any 

 part of the world during the existence of per- 

 fectly dry weather. It is therefore evident, that 

 lightning, and all violent winds, are immediately 

 connected with the rapid condensation of aqueous 

 vapour or steam, which owes its existence to the 

 expansive agency of solar caloric. Even the 

 winter gales so fatal to shipping on the coasts of 

 Great Britain and France, are always attended 

 with copious precipitations of rain or snow, and 

 sometimes with lightning. 



This may be readily understood when it is 

 remembered, that all the water which falls on 

 the earth, existed previously in the atmosphere 

 in the form of steam, that its volume is from 

 1300 to 1500 times that of water, at ordinary 

 temperatures, (and about i 720 times greater at 

 212.) All this steam is confined chiefly to the 

 lower regions of the air, and must necessarily 

 augment its volume in proportion to the quan- 

 tity diffused through it the consequences of 

 which are, that immense vacuums are produced 

 by its condensation, and a violent rush of the 

 surrounding air from different quarters, until an 

 equilibrium is restored. 



Perhaps there is no part of the world, where 

 thunder storms are so frequent as in the Bay of 

 Mexico, and on the borders of the Gulf Stream. 

 It has been said, that of all the vessels in the 

 world, which are annually destroyed by light- 



