1 18 Observations on the Hurricanes and Storms 



In the foregoing statements our design has been to designate in a 

 summary manner the principal movements which, in these regions at 

 least, constitute a storm ; and we do not attempt to notice the various 

 irregularities, and subordinate or incidental movements and phenom- 

 ena of the atmosphere, with which a storm may chance to be con- 

 nected, or which may necessarily result from such violent movements 

 in a fluid which is so tenuous and elastic in its character. It may be 

 remarked in general, that the most active or violent storms are usually 

 the most regular and uniform in the development of those character- 

 istic movements which we have already described. It is also prob- 

 able, that the vortex or rotative axis, of a violent gale or hurricane, 

 Oscillates in its course with considerable rapidity, in a moving circuit 

 of moderate extent, near the centre of the hurricane ; and such an 

 eccentric movement of the vortex may, for aught we know, be es- 

 sential to the continued activity or force of the hurricane. Such a 

 movement will fully account for the violent flaws or gnsts of wind, 

 and the intervening lulls or remissions, which are so often experien- 

 ced towards the heart of a storm or hurricane, when in open sea ; 

 but of its existence we have no positive evidence. 



It frequently happens that a storm during the first part of its prog- 

 ress over a given point, fails to take effect upon the surface, while it 

 exhibits its full activity at a greater altitude. This commonly hap- 

 pens when this portion of the storm arrives from, or has recently blown 

 over a more elevated country, or is passing or blowing from the land 

 to the sea. On land the most violent effects are usually felt from 

 those storms which enter and blow directly from the open ocean upon 

 the shores of an island or continent. Upon the latter,' under such cir- 

 cumstances, the flrst part of the gale is usually the most severe,- and 

 that coast of an island upon whith a storm first enters, or blows, also 

 suffers most from the early part of the gale, but its later or receding 

 part, often acts with the greatest fury upon the opposite side of the 

 island, which had previously derived some degree of shelter from 

 the intermediate elevations and other obstacles opposed to the force 

 of the wind, the benefit of which is now lost by its counter direction 

 from the open ocean. Owing to similar causes, the force of the 

 storm is sometimes very unequal at different places, situated in nearly 

 the same part of its track, and such inequality, as we have before in- 

 timated, necessarily pertains to two places one of which is near the 

 centre and the other towards the margin of the route. 



