50 On the prevailing Storms of the Atlantic Coast. 



of this hypothesis, there are persons who suppose that in stormy sea- 

 sons there is, in our climate, a constant tendency to the recurrence 

 of bad weather on the third, fifth and seventh days from the date of 

 a given storm, and this is more particularly noticed on the seventh 

 days, especially when the storm may happen to fall on Sundays. 

 The records of the weather for the more stormy part of the last three 

 years, if carefully examined, will be thought to accord with this opin- 

 ion, particularly as regards the seventh day storms. These have 

 sometimes occurred for many weeks in succession, and in some cases 

 of failure, have appeared within twelve hours, sooner or later, of the 

 assumed period. If this idea of the subject be well founded, it may 

 be interesting to inquire whether this peculiarity in the weather be 

 not the origin of those diurnal indications, which prevail in some of 

 the febrile diseases of our climate. 



The foregoing view of the character of our easterly storms tends 

 to show more clearly the general uniformity and extent of the great 

 atmospheric current of westerly winds, v/hich sweeps over a consid- 

 erable portion of our continent, and of the Northern Atlantic. It 

 also strengthens the opinion which we have entertained, that these 

 westerly winds, together with the trades which originate them, form 

 but a portion of a great circuit or system of winds, whose revolu- 

 tions are constantly, though in some parts, irregularly, maintained, in 

 the atmosphere which is incumbent upon the greater part of the At- 

 lantic ocean and a large portion of the adjacent continents ; and that 

 this revolution, varying in its sphere with the change of seasons, is 

 kept in constant activity by the causes which produce the trade 

 winds. The same v/inds produce also in their turn, the great sys- 

 tem or circuit, of oceanic currents, comprising the equatorial, the 

 gulf stream, the arctic current, and also their numerous appendant 

 currents, often of a gyrating and varying character, like that of the 

 bay of Biscay. The center of this oceanic revolution is found in 

 that great eddy of the Atlantic which is called the grassy sea, lying 

 between the parallels of 20° and 35° of north latitude, and the 28th 

 and 60tb merdians of longitude west from Greenwich. We have 

 the satisfaction to find, on referring to an able and interesting outline 

 of our physical geography and climate, that this great and continued 

 revolution in the atmosphere of the Atlantic basin is supported by 

 irrefragable evidence drawn from a valuable collection of meteoro- 

 logical tables, which have been compiled from numerous observa- 



