192 Miscellanies. 



which action is the sole cause of the violence which they may exhibit ; 

 and that the storms of the Atlantic Ocean are drifted in a determinate 

 direction, conforming to that of the general atmospheric current of 

 the region in which they occur. The late hurricane in the West In- 

 dies, having from its peculiar violence attracted considerable atten- 

 tion, I am induced to offer you the following notices of its appear- 

 ance and progress, which have been obtained from various sources. 



The earhest accounts are from the Island of Barbadoes, where 

 the hurricane raged with great violence, on the night of the 10th of 

 August. On the 11th it passed over the islands of St. Vincent, and 

 St. Lucia, extending its influence to Martinico and the neighboring 

 islands on the north, and to Grenada on the south, but exhibiting its 

 chief violence between 12° 30' and 14° 30' of north latitude. On 

 the 12th it arrived on the southern coast of the Island of Porto Rico. 

 From the 12th to the 13th it swept over the island of Hayti or St. 

 Domingo, and extended its influence as far southward as Jamaica. 

 On the 13th it raged on the eastern portion of Cuba, sweeping 

 in its course over large districts, if not the whole of that extensive 

 island. On the 14th it was at Havanna, towards the West end of 

 the same island. Of its progress on the 15th we have no distinct 

 accounts ; but on the 16th and 17th it arrived on the northern shores 

 of the Gulf of Mexico, in about the 30° north latitude, raging simul- 

 taneously at Pensacola, Mobile, and New-Orleans, where its effects 

 were continued till the 18th, thus having occupied a period of six 

 days in its passage from Barbadoes to New Orleans. 



From the coast of the gulf of Mexico the storm entered upon the 

 territories of the adjoining States, where it appears to have spent it- 

 self in heavy rains. If its pecuhar action was longer continued, it 

 must have been only in the higher atmosphere, as we have no ac- 

 count of any violent effects at the surface nearer than the Southern 

 States. 



When accounts of huricanes were formerly received, as occurring 

 at difierent islands, on various dates, with marked differences also in 

 the direction of the wind, it was taken for granted that those violent 

 winds were rectilinear in their course, and that such accounts, in most 

 cases, related to different storms. We now discover, however, that 

 there is no difficulty in tracing these storms successively from one 

 island or locality to another, and the direction of the wind at any one 

 point or place is found to have no connection with the general pro- 

 gress or direction of the storm. 



