330 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1608. 



footstalks, and are thin set on all sides the stalks, but have a tendency only one 

 way. 



54. Cornutus's Canada Celandine. Chelidonium maximum Canadense 

 »>tauAoi/, Corn. 212, fig. Park. 617. Morrison. H. Ox. 257. Sect. 3, tab. 3. 

 fig. 1, Rail H. pi. I887. Ranunculus Virginiensisalbus, Park. 327, fig- an Virgi- 

 nianus, Mus. Trad. 160. 



Captain Langfo?d\s Observations on his oivn Experience upon Hurricanes, and 

 their Prognostics. Communicated by Mr, Bonavert. N° 246, p. 407. 



It has been the custom of our English and French inhabitants of the Caribee 

 islands to send about the month of June, to the native Caribees of Dominico 

 and St. Vincent, to know whether there would be any hurricanes that year ; and 

 about 10 or 12 days before the hurricane came, they would constantly send them 

 word ; and it very rarely was erroneous, as I have observed in five hurricanes, in 

 the years 1057, 1658, 1660, l665, and 1667. From one of these Indians, I 

 had the following prognostics : 



1. All hurricanes come either on the day of the full, change, or quarters of 

 the moon. 2. If it be to happen on the full moon, observe these signs, during 

 the change : the skies will be turbulent, the sun redder than usual, a great 

 calm, and the hills clear of clouds or fogs over them, which in the high lands 

 are seldom so; likewise in hollows, or concaves of the earth, or wells, there 

 will be a great noise, as of a storm, and at night the stars will look very large 

 with burs about them, and the north west sky very black and foul, the sea 

 smelling stronger than at other times : and sometimes for an hour or two of 

 that day the wind blows very hard westerly out of its usual course. On the 

 full of the moon you have the same signs, with a great bur about the moon, 

 and frequently about the sun. The same signs must be observed on the quarter 

 days of the moon, in July, August, and September ; the months when the hur- 

 ricanes are most prevalent ; the earliest I ever heard of, was the 25th of Julv, 

 and the latest the 8th of September : but the usual month is August. 



The method of avoiding the danger is to keep the ship sailable, with good 

 store of ballast, the ports well barred and calked, the top-masts and tops down, 

 the yards laced a-port, keeping the doors and windows of the ship fast, and she 

 will lie as well as in other storms ; thus the ships being in readiness, they may 

 stay in the road till the storm begins, which is always first at north, so to the 

 north-west, till it comes round to the south-cast, and then its fury is over. So 

 with the north wind they may run away to the south, to get themselves sea- 

 room, for the drift of the south-west wind, where it blows very fiercely. By 

 ♦hese means, I have, by God's blessing, preserved myself in two hurricanes at 



