On the Rotary Action of Storms. 71 
extensive pastures; upon a black and charred clearing in the 
midst of a cool forest; or at a large clearing fire. Upon a great 
scale—if an island beneath the tropical sun received upon rocks 
and sands the intense radiance of a succession of clear, calm, and 
hot days, and consequent sea breezes from the deep and cool 
ocean pressed in upon all its shores with the violence of a high 
wind, it should not cause surprise if these various breezes com- 
bined to generate a vast whirlwind; nor if the lofty revolving 
column should at last leave the place of its origin and traverse 
the sea, a hurricane. ‘The cause which first excited the centrip- 
etal tendencies of the storm, might be renewed as the upper cur- 
rent of the atmosphere bore it over other heated spots; and the 
law of deflection will inevitably transform the central into circu- 
lar motion. 'The destructive storms of our sea-coast may have 
such an origin among the eastern islands of the West Indies, from 
which they appear to proceed. 
Fig. 3. 
In the southern hemisphere the same law of deflection pro- 
duces contrary results. ‘There the wind which first moves north 
bends to the west, and the wind which moves south at first turns 
towards the east, that from the east turns south, and that from 
the west turns north. Figure 3 represents these effects. Hence 
south of the equator storms revolve from left to right, or con- 
