36G Memoir of William C. Redfield. 



Eedfield's earliest paper respecting the September gale of 1821, 

 published in the American Journal of Science. With the view 

 of testing Eedfield's doctrineSj he submitted to the closest scru- 

 tiny the records which the Barbadoes storm had left of its rava- 

 ges, — an investigation which ended in a perfect conviction that 

 this storm was a progressive whirlwind, A friendly correspon- 

 dence was shortly afterwards opened between these two con- 

 genial spirits, which resulted in an intimacy unbroken except by 

 the hand of death. Commodore Perry, in the recent Report of 

 his Japan Expedition, thus expresses himself in an introductory 

 note to Mr, Eedfield's Essay (the latest of his published works) 

 on the Cyclones of the Pacific, addressed to Commodore Perry, 

 and forming a part of his volume. "It was my good fortune 

 (says the Commodore) to enjoy, for many years, the friendly ac- 

 quaintance of one as remarkable for modesty and unassuming 

 pretensions, as for laborious observation and inquiry after knowl- 

 edge. To him and to Gen. Eeid of the Royal Engineers of Eng- 

 land (now governor of Malta) are navigators mainly indebted 

 for the discovery of a law which has already contributed, and 

 will continue to contribute, greatly to the safety of vessels trav- 

 ersing the ocean. It is true that subsequent writers have fur- 

 nished additional information on this subject; but to Bedfield 

 and Eeid should be ascribed the credit of the original discovery 

 of this undeniable law of nature and its application to useful 

 purposes; and there can be nothing more beautiful, as illustra- 

 tive of the character of these two men, than the fact, well known 

 to myself, that notwithstanding their simultaneous observations 

 and discoveries, in different parts of the world, neither claimed 

 the slightest merit over the other, but each strove to give to his 

 co-worker in research the meed of superior success in the great 

 object of their joint labors; and thus, without ever meeting, a 

 strong friendship was formed between them, growing out ot 

 congenial aspirations for an honorable fame, and mutual admi- 

 tation of the sjenerous and enlightened views exhibited by each 



other ; and this ennobling feeling was kept alive to the last by 

 friendly correspondence." 



The idea of whirlwinds is indeed much older than Ecdfield or 

 Eeid, being as old as the writings of the psalmist and the proph- 

 ets ; and we safely admit further, that the doctrine of ocean gales 

 being sometimes of a rotary character, had been hinted at by 

 several writers, as hints of such a principle as gravitation had 

 long preceded the investigations of Newton ; but the honor ol 

 having established, on satisfactor;^ evidence, the rotary and pro- 

 gressive character of ocean storms, and determining their modes 

 of action or laws, it is due alike to the memory of the departed, 

 and to our country's fame, to claim for William C. KEDriELD. 



Back of the laws that govern these ocean gales, as first deter- 

 mined by Eedfield and confirmed by Dov<5, Eeid, Piddmgton, 



