West African Hurricanes. 177 
Most of these vessels put into Rio Janeiro, where these reports 
were obtained by Capt. Theodore Lewis, from whom I received . 
them in New York. 
can find no reason for doubting the continental origin of this 
hurricane. Its progression was evidently slow: and its subse- 
quent course is placed under some doubt by the following report 
The Russell, from Salem for Rio Grande, was spoken 24th 
Sept., lat. 4° N., lon. 20° W., by the Richard Thornton, arrived 
in the Thames from Batavia, and reported having experienced a 
hurricane on the 6th Sept., in lat. 28° N., lon: 32° W., in whic 
e lost fore-topmast and main top-gallant-masts, boats, &c., also 
topsails, courses, jib., &c. blown away. 
The position aud date here given, led me first to lay down the 
track of this gale as having recurved on a route which passes 
between Teneriffe and the Azores. But the meteorological ob- 
servations made by the British consuls at the Azores and Madeira, 
for the English Government, with other observations collected 
by Mr. Hunt, Consul General at St. Michaels, which were com- 
municated by the government to Col. Reid, and by him kindly 
sent to me, do not render this course probable: unless the gale 
Passed near to the Canary Islands, from whence no definite re- 
Pert could be obtained. The route of the gale, therefore, was 
probably westward ; corresponding to Track xxiv. 
pose the correct latitude to have been 18°, instead of 28°, it will 
Place the Russell in a far more probable position, and one which 
sufficiently coincides with the foregoing reports. ‘T'he nautical | 
te, however, will then appear about one day in advance; unless 
the progression of the storm was at the low rate of about five miles 
an hour The log-book of the Russell might solve these doubts. 
Jn the wester! y course thus indicated, the gale may have : 
ermuda about the 15th of Sept., where there were full indica- 
tions of the proximity of a slow moving gale. This would show 
an average progression of between eight and nine miles an hour. 
Track xxi. : 
%. Mr. Piddington has adduced the case of a cyclone passing 
out from the coast of Africa, to the northward of the Cape de 
Verdes, ona W. by N., or W.N. W. course, giving to the ship 
evonshire as she first stood to the S. S. W., and then hove to, 
about 120 miles westward of St. Antonio, a severe gale from 
\. E. to Sonth.* ; 
ee add here notices of three other gales, in this part of the At-— 
tic, 
3. The Superior, from Harbor Grace for Barbadoes, reports as 
follows: Oct. 14th, 1850, in lat 24° 5%, lon. 47° 10’, experienced 
_  * Piddington’s Horn Book for the Law of Storms; 2nd edition, p. 31. 
Stcoxn Sears, Vol. XVIII, No. 53.—Sept., 1854. 23 
