254 OBSERVATIONS ON THE WINDS. 



the 18th, winds variable from the Eastward, E. by N. to E.S.E. ; after midnight, 

 strong gales and heavy s<iualis. At noon, by estimation, Bermudas S. 53° E., 93 

 miles. 19th, at 1 a.m., weather moderate, and the ship proceeded on her course. 



On the 18th, about fifty vessels were driven on shore at Bermuda. 



We have been the more particular in giving these details, from having formerly 

 been misled by uaperfect data. In the delineation of the " Great Hurricane," 

 given by Colonel Reid, he first assumes a circle having a radius of about 170 miles, 

 which gradually expands, on its N.W., North, and N.E. course, to 270 miles, with, 

 we may presume, a diminished and proportionate momentum, on the parallel of 

 Bermuda. The colonel observes that, on reading the logs and the various accounts 

 of this Hurricane, and comparing the diherent reports of the wind, it will be foimd 

 that no storm yet described, proves more strongly than this, the rotatory nature 

 of Hurricanes. 



(195.) Triniilad, June, 1831.— (iVo. /. on the Ch(trt.)~On June 23rd, 1831, 

 Trinidad, in the parallel of 10^° N., experienced one of the most awful storms of 

 wind and rain ever remenabered by the oldest inhabitant. The gale commenced 

 at 5 o'clock on Thursday luorning, and continued till 11. The wind, after shifting 

 from East, North, West, and South, finally settled at S.W., and blew without inter- 

 mission until 3 in the afternoon. Eleven or twelve vessels were driven on shore, 

 and several of thexn severely damaged. 



It was subsequently stated that the Hurricane was felt at all the Southern 

 islands, where the loss it occasioned was very great. Such a storm had not 

 happened at Grenada since the year 1780 ; the devastation was extensive and 

 dreadful ; and the loss in that colony was estimated at ,£80,000. Its course to 

 Yucatan is described hereafter. 



(196.) Bitrhadoes, Ainjiist, 1831. — [No. II. on the Chart.) — In the night followmg 

 August loth, one of the most devastp~ting Hurricanes that had ever been expe- 

 rienced visited Barbadoes. Not a single house was left uninjured, and the greater 

 part v/ere levelled with the ground. On the 11th it passed over the Islands of 

 St. Vincent and St. Lucia, extending a portion of its influence to Martinique and 

 islands to the N.W., and to Grenada on the South, but exhibiting its principal 

 violence between 12:^° and 14° N., or the parallels of Barbadoes and Martinique. 

 On the 12th it arrived on the Southern coast of Porto Rico ; from the 12th to the 

 13th it sv/ept over the South side of Hayti, and extended its influence as far 

 Southward as Jamaica. On the 13th it raged on the Eastern portion of Cuba, 

 sweeping in its course over large districts. The town of Aux Cayes, in Hayti, 

 was almost destroyed by its force, and that of St. lago de Cuba was very much 

 damaged. On the 14th it was at Havana and toward the West end of Cuba. On 

 the 15th it proceeded North-Westward, and on the 16th and 17th it arrived on the 

 Northern shores of the Mexican Sea, in about the 30th degree of latitude, raging 

 simultaneously at Pensacola, Mobile, and New Orleans, where its effects were 

 continued till the 18th. At New Orleans, on the 17th, it came on in dreadful 

 gales, from N.E. to S.E., accompanied with torrents of rain. Almost all the 

 shipping in the river were driven on shore, and very few of the smaller craft 

 escaped total wreck. The back part of the city was completely inundated. The 

 sugar-canes, above and below the city, were laid flat, and the loss was enormous. 

 The gale was felt at Natchez, 300 miles up the river ; and hereabout it spent itself 

 in heavy rains, after having occupied a period of six days in the cycloidal course 

 irom Barbadoes. 



At most of the islands, during th« Hurricane, the winds in the earlier part of 

 the storm were from a Northern quarter, and in its later periods from a Southern 

 quarter, of the horizon ; from which it results, that the gyratory action was from 

 right to left, as in the storms which pass to the Northward of the great islands, 

 and along the Western coast of the ocean. 



The dietance passed over by the storm, in its passage from Barbadoes to New 



