The Law of Storms. 203 
search, based upon careful observation and the accurate charting 
of hundreds of reports from vessels in similar storms in various 
oceans, proved conclusively that the wind ina hurricane does not 
blow in strictly circular whirls, but rather spirally inward, so that 
with a NE. wind off Hatteras the center bears probably S SE., 
or even South : evidently this is a matter of vital importance to 
the navigator, and all the old rules should be remodeled to suit 
the discovery. Such is, indeed, actually the fact, and in most 
cases nothing could be worse than to run directly before the 
wind ; in any event it would be dangerous, and in the case of a 
slow-moving cyclone it might readily lead the vessel directly 
into the core of the hurricane. This is known to have been the 
case in many instances, and vessels have thus been drawn into 
the inner whirls of hurricanes and kept there for several days, 
making one or more complete revolutions around the center be- 
fore they could extricate themselves. In fact, they might never 
have gotten out, if the storm itself had not moved off and left 
them. 
The first of the accompanying plates, entitled, 
West Inpran Hurricanes, AND OTHER NortH ATLANTIC 
STorRMs, 
gives a brief and yet complete résumé of what is perhaps the 
best modern practice. In these brief statements the attempt 
has been made to put concisely, intelligibly, and completely (if 
one will but read each and every sentence as carefully as they 
were written), the very latest, most important, and best-estab- 
lished facts, with which every navigator should be familiar. The 
paragraph entitled “ Intensified trade-wind belt,” for instance, is 
very important. A close consideration of the caution expressed 
in these few lines may prevent a serious mistake that might be 
made by a too rigid adherence to the old rules. The idea is as 
follows: It bas been proved by Meldrum, from his studies of 
Mauritius hurricanes, that the SE. trade-winds blow toward a 
part of the track of a hurricane, rather than at right angles to 
the direction of its center, and it is therefore unsafe to assume 
that the center bears at right angles to the wind, or that, because 
the trade wind increases in strength without any decided change 
of direction, the center is approaching directly toward the vessel. 
This principle might naturally be expected to hold for similar 
storms in other regions, and Abercromby, in a thorough study of 
