of the United States and the West Indies. 119 



Of the multitude of facts by which this part of the subject might be 

 illustrated, we will only state, that in the late hurricane at Barbadoes, 

 (that of August 1831) the trees near the northern coast of that island, 

 lay from N. N. W. to S. S. E. having been prostrated by a northerly 

 wind in the earlier part of the storm, while in the interior and some 

 other parts of the island, they were found to lie from south to north, 

 having fallen in the later period of the gale. — That after the same hur- 

 ricane, advices which were received from the islands of St. Croix and 

 Porto Rico, (which lay near the northern margin of its track) staled 

 that no hurricane had been experienced at these islands ; but it af- 

 terwards appeared that some portions of these islands had suffered 

 damage from this hurricane in the night of the 12th to 13lh of An- 

 gust, two days after it passed over the island of Barbadoes. — That the 

 sea islands which border the coast of Georgia and the Carolines, are 

 known to suffer greatly from these tempests, while little or no injury 

 is sustained in the interior at the distance of a few miles from the 

 coast. One of the .most striking characteristics of these storms, is 

 the heavy swell which in open sea is often known to extend itself on 

 both sides of the track, entirely beyond the range of the gale by 

 which it was produced. The last hurricane to which we have allu- 

 ded, threw its swell with tremendous force upon the northern shores 

 of Jamaica, having passed to the northward of that island. 



A variety of deductions may be drawn from the general facts which 

 we have stated, some of which, are deeply interesting to the philoso- 

 pher and votary of science. For ourselves, we disclaim any bondage 

 to existing theories in meteorology ; and shall on the present occasion, 

 only, proceed to notice a few of the more practical inferences which, 

 to navigators and others may, perhaps, be of no doubtful utility. 



1. A vessel bound to the eastward between the latitudes of 32^ 

 and 45° in the western part of the Atlantic, on being overtaken by 

 a gale which commences blowing from any point to the eastward of 

 S. E. or E. S. E. may avoid some portion of its violence, by putting 

 her head to the northward, and when the gale has veered sufficiently 

 in the same direction, may safely resume her course. But by stand- 

 ing to the southward under like circumstances, she will probably fall 

 into the heart of the storm. 



2. In the same region, vessels, on taking a gale from S. E. or points 

 near thereto, will probably soon 6nd themselves in the heart of the 

 storm, and after its first fury is spent, may expect its recurrence from 

 the opposite quarter. The most promising mode of mitigating its vi- 



