( 217 ) 



9.— HURRICANES. 



(151.) Among the most extraordinary phenomena of nature may be 

 classed those tremendous meteors, the Hurricanes and Tornados of the 

 Tropical Eegions. There are various names applied to these storms : 

 Cyclones, Eevolving Storms, Kotary Gales, Hurricanes, Tornados (Portu- 

 guese and expressive "re-turned"). Typhoons, &c. ; but all are meant to 

 describe much the same thing. Up to within quite a recent period they 

 were very imperfectly understood, and were only regarded as terrible con- 

 vulsions of the aerial system, when all order seemed to be broken up. 

 But these, like many other apparent anomalies in nature, have been found 

 reducible to system ; and their various seemingly capricious motions all 

 subject to general rules, which, in this case, have been aptly denominated 

 " The Laiv of Storms." 



(152.) Authorities. — The discussions on the progressive nature of Hurri- 

 canes appear to have originated in a paper, entitled " Remarks on the 

 Prevailing Storms of the Atlantic Coast of the North American States," 

 by William C. Eedfield, of New York, 1831, which proved to be a very 

 important and valuable addition to nautical Uterature.* The subject, 

 adopting the " Eedfield Theory," was afterwards amplified and illustrated 

 by Lieutenant-Colonel (afterwards Sir) William Eeid, E.E., C.B., Governor 

 of the Bermudas and of Malta, in the volume entitled " An Attempt to 

 Develop the Law of Storms by means of Facts, arranged according to 

 Place and Time, and hence to point out a Cause for the Variable Winds, 

 with a view to practical use in Navigation," 1838. As connected with this 

 subject, the names of Eedfield and Eeid will be imperishable. | 



We say that the discussion appears to have originated in the before- 

 mentioned works ; but, without deciding on the claims of priority, it must 

 be mentioned that, besides the names of Eeid and Eedfield, those of 

 Mr. Piddington, at Calcutta ; of Dr. Thom, and more recently Professor 

 Meldrum, in the Indian Ocean; of Mr. Espy, in America; and of Professor 

 Dov6, at Berlin, must be enrolled with them, as the primary instigators 

 of the enquiry into the origin and nature of Storms. Mr. Piddington's 

 "Hornbook" contains the most valuable information on this important 

 topic. 



Among more recent writers on this subject we may mention the Padre 



• The origin of the revolving theory has been attributed to others earlier in the field 

 then Redfield andReid. Among others, to Colonel Capper, who published his well-known 

 work on Winds and Monsoons, in 1801 ; to Eom ae, a French author, in 1806 ; and to 

 several others. But these all fell short of establishing the law, inasmuch as they only 

 noticed the shifting character of the winds in one spot, and did not reach the conclusion 

 that these shifts had an invariable character, and that the whole meteor was progressive. 



t " My attention was first directed to the subject from having been employed at Bar- 

 badoes in re-establishing the Government buildings blown down in the Hurricane of 

 1831, when 1,477 persons lost their lives in the short space of seven hours. I was in- 

 duced to search everywhere for accounts of previous storms, in the hope of learning 

 something of their causes and mode of action. "—ie«rf, " Law of Storms." 



N.A. 0. 29 



