On the prevailing Storms of the Atlantic Coast. 37 



From St. Johns to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, sixteen and a 

 half miles per hour. 



From Cape Hatteras to Nantucket, on the south-eastern coast of 

 Massachusetts, eighteen niiles per hour. 



From Nantucket to Sable Island, off the south-eastern coast of 

 Nova Scotia, twenty miles an hour. 



The general rout of this storm is delineated on the annexed map, 

 so far as could be done by a careful collation of accounts from more 

 than seventy different localities. The four dotted hnes are supposed 

 to include that portion of the rout on which the storm exhibited its 

 greatest violence, but its entire influence was spread over a much 

 wider range. The two central lines are beheved to be sn approxima- 

 tion to the rout pursued by the vortex, or moving axis, of the storm. 



The storm appeared on this part of the coast simultaneously with 

 the prevalence of a north-westerly wind, which maintained itself at a 

 few miles distance, for some hours after the setting in of the north- 

 east wind at New York ; the latter gradually extending itself up the 

 Hudson. During the whole period of the gale the extreme margin 

 of the stratum of clouds pertaining to the storm, was visible from the 

 city and elevated not less than ten or fifteen degrees in the north- 

 western horizon. The sun set during the height of the gale, and by 

 illumining the lower surface of the dense canopy at his departure, 

 gave a most striking degree of splendor to the scene ; an effect which 

 was much noticed at New Haven, and other places. 



,On the western part of the Atlantic ocean, between the parallel of 

 New York and the northern limit of the trades, the prevailing winds, 

 for a considerable period both previously and subsequently to the oc- 

 currence of this storm, were south-westerly, or from the southern 

 quarter; and over the whole breadth of the Adantic on the rout fre- 

 quented by ships in the European trade, fresh south-western or west- 

 erly wind« also prevailed at the same period, for many weeks. These 

 facts are well established by numerous marine journals which have 

 been consulted in relation to this subject. 



Striking evidence of the vorticular or rotative character of the 

 storm, is afforded by the journals of two of our outward bound Euro- 

 pean ships, the Britannia and the Illinois. The former had sailed 

 from New York on the 16th, with the wind in a southern quarter, 

 and encountered the storm on the night of the 17th, between Block 

 Island and the latitude of o9^. The storm was first felt from N. E. 

 and E. N. E., and on the course steered by the ship veered by mid- 



