228 OBSEEVATTONS ON THE WINDS. 



twelve hours before the wind comes on. The peculiar cirro-stratus clouds, 

 the invariable precursors of the Hurricane, soon appear, looking like white 

 and delicate feathers or great and showy plumes crossing the firmament. 

 These beautiful clouds remain fixed at times, and do not change their 

 forms for hours. The weather becomes heavy, the heat oppressive and 

 sticky, causing profuse perspiration, and the humidity of the air increases. 

 In a short time the cloud-bank of the Hurricane appears on the horizon, 

 the wind freshens every moment, and the first nimbus and broken cumulus 

 clouds commence to disintegrate and fly about with gusts, light rains, and 

 passing squalls. These increase in number and intensity, with the more 

 rapid fall of the barometer, as the storm-centre approaches. Electrical 

 discharges are rarely seen at this period. 



Lieutenant E. Hayden, U.S.N., remarks that one of the most important 

 indications of an approaching Hurricane is the marked cyclonic circulation 

 of the wind and the lower and upper clouds. A Cyclone is an ascending 

 spiral whirlwind, with a rotary motion against the hands of a watch in the 

 Northern Hemisphere. The surface wind blows spirally inward, being only 

 circular very near the centre ; the current above, carrying the low scud 

 and rain clouds, blows in almost an exact circle around the centre ; the 

 next higher current, with cumulus cloud, in an outward spiral ; and so on, 

 up to the highest cirrus clouds, which radiate directly outward. The angle 

 of divergence between the successive currents is almost exactly two points 

 of the compass. Ordinarily, with the wind from North, the low clouds 

 come from North also, but on the edge of a Hurricane when the wind is 

 North, the low clouds come from N.N.E. invariably. In the rear of a 

 Hurricane, the wind blows more nearly inward ; thus, with a S.E. wind 

 the centre will bear about West, the low clouds coming from S.S.E. 



Great activity of movement of the upper clouds, while the Storm is still 

 distant, indicates the Hurricane to be of great violence. If the radiating 

 cirrus plumes are faint and opalescent, fading gradually behind a slowly 

 thickening haze, the approaching Storm is an old one of large area ; if of 

 snowy whiteness, against a clear blue sky, it is a young Cyclone of small 

 area but great intensity. 



Padre Vines' remarks are given later on, in (169). 



(167.) Storm Centre. — It will be very readily understood that the whole 

 care of the shipmaster, when he first encounters a Storm, is to know how 

 it may be avoided, or otherwise its destructive effects may pass over his 

 vessel in its utmost fury. When the first force of the expected Hurricane 

 reaches his ship, the first point that requires to be known is on what part 

 of the circumference the vessel may be ; that being ascertained, it is 

 usually comparatively easy to get out of its way, or at least to avoid its 

 worst effects. Occasional disasters must occur, in spite of all human fore- 



of a cinereous hue, in every direction, until the whole canopy of heaven is overspread, 

 and the gloom at last becomes so intense that, even at mid-day, to speak within bounds, 

 beyond a quarter of a mile no object can be oven indistinctly seen. There are, however, 

 some degrees of variation in the intensity of the obscurity ; but we all know that the 

 measure of distance by the eye upon such an exciting occasion is not likely to be very 

 exact ; at one period in a Hurricane, just as the ship was dismasted, at the crisis, near 

 noon, we could not clearly distinguish the end of the bowsprit from the quarter-deck. — 

 Litui^iant Evans. 



