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On the Cyclones of the North Pacific Oceaiu 35 



If to this we add one diameter of its area, as found in the 

 time and rate of its transits, at the places of our earliest and 

 latest observations, respectively, we may consider its known path 

 as extending more than four thousand nautical miles. 



Reindeer's Cychne^ Jaly^ 1850.— The American ship Reindeer 

 was dismasted in a furious huiTicane on the 19th of July 

 1850, in lat. 18^ 80' K, Ion. 139^ E. ; ahout twelve hundred 

 miles from the coast of China. She ran with bare poles, under 

 the easterly winds of the cyclone ; thus nearing its vortex, till 

 the barometer had fallen to 58"85, when the wind veered to 

 S. S. E., in a perfect blast ; the ship broached to, and the masts 

 soon went overboard. 



With the knowledge of storms we now possess our ships ought 

 not to be thus disabled, in open sea. 



The Freak's Typhoon of May 1st, 1850.— The English brig 

 Freak fell in. with this cyclone in lat 19^ 28' N., Ion. 138° 44' E., 

 with the wind at E. by S. varying to E. by N., and the brig ran 

 westward, with an increasing gale. At midnight the master be- 

 gan to suspect that he was approaching the vortex of a cyclone 

 that was travelling to the northwest, and at 1 A. M., May 2d, he 

 hove to, on the starboard tack, to allow it to pass him. It con- 

 tinued blowing a hurricane, and at noon the wind became 

 E. N. K, with barometer at 29'22. Between 2 and 3 P. M., the 

 fore topmast was broken off by the force of the wind; which at 

 this time was beyond description,. At 3'50 r. M. the barometer 

 had fallen to 28'87, its lowest point. The wind from noon contin- 

 ued to haul northward, its greatest strength being from about 



N. E, by N., and the master thus found to his surprise, that he 



was in the northwest quadrant of the cyclone and on the left 

 side of its center-path ; it having already recurved to the north- 

 ward and eastward. From 4 P. M. the barometer began to riSe 

 and the force of the gale to decrease. 



The easterlv winds of this cyclone having veered by the north, 

 the master's inference that the recurvation in its course took 

 place during the time his vessel was in the gale, appeal^ correct; 

 the center of the vortex having recurved southward and east- 

 ward of the vessel's place. The full account may be seen in the 

 London Nautical Magazine for 1851, p. 273-275. 



Ladrone or Marian Islands. — These islands lie near Ion. 146^ 

 E., and are subject to hurricanes, for which the inhabitants 

 prepare, by lashing down and securing their houses. They are 

 expected in the montlig of June, July, and August: also, in De- 

 cember and January. The island of Guam, laL 13° 26' N., was 

 visited on the 23d of Sept. 1855, by a typhoon of the most vio 

 lent character. More than eight thousand persons were left with- 

 out a house or roof to protect them from the fury of the storm. 



