Oil the Cyclones of the North Pacific Ocean. 25 



wbicli wind, while increasing to a severe gale, enabled her to 

 clear the north eud of Forniosa, and meeting a heavy sea from 

 N.E., while thus drawing nearer to the center-path of the gale. 

 On the 23d the gale increased; the barometer at noon at 29'20; 

 the wind veering from N. N. W, to N.N.B., as she approached 

 the storm's center. At midnight the aneroid had fallen to 28'50, 

 and the 24:th began with a hurricane from N. N. E., and high sea. 

 At noon, gale less violent; weather looking very unsettled ; at 

 1 p. M. wiiid W. N. W. ; aneroid 28*30 and still fallinu' : at 3 P. M. 

 calm ! ! [vessel in the southern side of the axial area of the gale-] 

 At 8.30 P. M. wind increasin^^ and bearing to S. W. ; 5 P. M. o-ale 



S. W. ; 5.30j blowing a hurricane : 6 p. M,, hurricane from south, 

 increasing; scudding under bare poles; aneroid 24:*14: [vessel 

 now behind the storm's center and running across its path]. 

 At 7 P. M, gale had veered to S.E. The gale continued from 

 the S.E. on the 2oth; the vessel scudding towards her destined 

 i)ort. On the 27th the aneroid stood at 29-63, in lat. 30° 07', 

 Ton. 122^ 4G'*8 ; the winds still fresh and weather squally. 



It thus appears that the Earnest took the gale, in force on the 

 night of the 21st, from N. N.W., at a distance of perhaps ninety 

 miles to the left of the line on which the storm was approach- 

 ing. * But pushing northeastward, in order to clear Formosa and 

 the small islands in its vicinity, she steered almost directly for 

 the approaching vortex of the gale, thus changing its direction 

 &om N.N.W. to N.N.E., the latter being the normal direction 

 of the anterior part of the gale, on its center-path. When the 

 axis had passed and the direction of the gale thus became south- 

 erly, the vessel was able, to run to the northward^ on her desired 

 course, which carried her across the axis-path, into the second 

 Tight hand quadrant of the gale. This brouglit the wind to the 

 southeast, as with the other shipSj which were then in the same 

 quadrant of the cyclone. 



To what distance the force of this cvclone might have been 

 traced on the left or southerlv side of its track we are unable to 

 determine; but this was doubtless less than the extension on the 

 right side of its axis line, as is seen in most cyclones, north of 

 the equator. As regards the entire breadth of its path, we learn 

 from the report of sailing master Conover to Commodore Perry, 

 "that on the 26th and 27tli of July it blew most terribly upon 

 the coast, from Hong Kong to Shanghai ; scattering and wrecking 

 the unwieldy Chinese junks and sending many a poor lishennan 

 to his long home." Its further course, over the great alluvial 

 plain of China and the adjacent waters of the Yellow Sea, and 

 the subsequent recurvation of its path, cannot be determined 

 from observation. Its axis-path on the Pacific, as indicated by 

 the foregoing reports, marked A, is seen on the accompanying 

 storm-chart of the North Pacific Ocean. 



S£COKD SERIES, VOL. XXIV, NO. TO. — JULY, 1M7. 



4 



