Dove on the Law of Storms. 331 



gal towards the mountain range of Arracan, where it turned com- 

 pletely at right angles, advancing into the interior, up the Ganges, 

 and blowing as a southeastern current over Calcutta and Benares 

 to Cawnpoor, Lucknow and Agra. At the place of flexure near 

 Arracan — in the focus, as Piddington expresses it, of the parabo- 

 lic course of the storm — a whirlwind originated and advanced 

 parallel to the coast, and passing off the mouths of the Ganges, 

 moved in a direction from between E. N. E. and E. towards W. 

 S. W. and W., from Shapooree Island towards Vizagapatam, Gan- 

 gam, Juggernaut, and the mouths of the Mahanuddy and Bram- 

 nee, rotating like the West India hurricanes in the sense S.E. N.W. 



Here we have a whirlwind rotating in a precisely similar man- 

 ner to those before described, arising (under circumstances origi- 

 nally quite different) when the direction of the storm on its east- 

 ern side was more towards the north than on its western side ; 

 and possibly the typhoons of the Chinese sea may owe their ori- 

 gin to similar causes. In the complex phenomenon of the south- 

 west monsoon the conditions are analogous. The wind, from 

 being southwest in the Indian sea and the bay of Bengal, be- 

 comes more nearly south in the Chinese sea ; more extended ob- 

 servations are required to show whether this deflection is caused 

 by the chain of the Philippines, or whether it is an immediate 

 consequence of the bordering of the monsoon and the trade. 

 Horsburgh says expressly,* that on the south coast of China the 

 typhoons from July to September make the wind vanes when 

 near the coast point successively N. W., N., N. E., E., S. E. and 

 S., and that further off the coast they point instead to N., N. W\, 

 W., S. W., S. In other words, the typhoons are storms rotating 

 S. E. N. W., passing along the coast from east to west, so that 

 the northern half of the whirlwind impinges on the coast, and 

 the southern half covers remoter portions of the sea. The Ra- 

 leigh typhoon of the 5th of August, 1835, which passed from 

 Bashee Island, between Luconia and Formosa towards Macao, in 

 the direction from E. S. E. to W. N. W., is a recent example of 

 these storms, and corresponds perfectly to the description which 

 has just been given. 



But if these rotatory storms arise from the southwest monsoon 

 being more southerly on its eastern than on its western side, and 



•India Directory, Vol. II, p. 233. 



