On the prevailing Storms of the Atlantic Coast. 47 



the last or receding semi-diameter of the storm, even though the 

 violence of the wind, as sometimes happens, should be greater than 

 on its advancing section ; the rise of the barometer being accelerated 

 by the impulsion of the general current which pi;esses forward the 

 storm, as well as by the forward inclination of the gyrating mass. 



It sometimes happens, when the central portion of an extensive 

 storm passes over or near the point of observation, that the compara- 

 tive calm or lull which prevails abotit the apparent center of rotation, 

 is preceded by a gradual, rather than sudden, abatement of the wind, 

 and that the seemingly contrary wind of the opposite section of the 

 storm, as gradually resumes its violence. This circumstance, among 

 others, has led to the erroneous conclusion of the prevalence of two 

 distinct and opposing storms, one rapidly succeeding the other, or, 

 as a comparison of facts at different points on the central line of the 

 storm's progress might seem to show, that these supposed separate 

 storms were constantly blowing, each directly against the other. 

 The tendency of such a movement, however, must be to produce 

 an immediate calm, instead of a continued and violent gale, and 

 would inevitably produce a rapid and unnatural rise in the barometer 

 at the first setting in of the storm, a rise which must continue as long 

 as these forces remained opposed to each other. Now as the baro- 

 meter invariably falls, when under the influence of a violent gale, its 

 testimony ought to be decisive against such a view of the subject, 

 even were it possible to assign any natural cause which would be 

 adequate to furnish the immense and inconceivable power which 

 would be necessary to produce and sustain belligerent movements of 

 such violence and duration. The application of a litde physical 

 arithmetic to subjects of this kind, it is conceived, would often pre- 

 vent the adoption of erroneous or hasty conclusions. 



The usual phenomena of these changes, on the central track of 

 the more violent storms of the Atlantic, are however, often exhibit- 

 ed in a manner too sudden and striking, to permit of the illusion of 

 two separate storms to take possession of the mind of the observer; 

 with whatever solution he may attempt to reconcile the apparently 

 opposing effects. Every experienced navigator will shrink with in- 

 stinctive apprehension from the very idea of those moments of awful 

 and treacherous stillness which place him in the central vortex of the 

 hurricane, ready to be overwhelmed by the rapidly advancing and 

 seemingly impenetrable line of spray which envelops the onset of the 



