202 On the Courses of Hurricanes. 



which had been remarkable for their violence, and which were 

 selected as illnstrations of the general course and whirlwind char- 

 acter of many other storms, relating to which similar information 

 had been obtained. 



The favorable attention with which these statements have gen- 

 erally been received, together with the spirit and professional zeal 

 with which the subject has been discussed in the pages of the 

 Nautical Magazine, have seemed to invite a more detailed exhibi- 

 tion of the numerous facts which have claimed attention in the 

 progress of my inquiries. Being informed, however, that Lieut. 

 Col. Reid, of the Royal Engineers, had engaged in the investiga- 

 tion, with the design of publishing a more full exhibition of the 

 facts than had yet been offered, I most willingly awaited the 

 issue; being fully persuaded, that whatever doubts or difficul- 

 ties might remain with those who had not thoroughly exam- 

 ined the subject, would not fail to be dispelled^by his enterprising 

 and judicious labors. The highly valuable work of Col. Reid, 

 on the law o* storms, is now before me ; arid I cannot but express 

 my commendation of the talent and research by which he has so 

 ably and satisfactorily exhibited the true natural system of hurri- 

 canes, and my acknowledgments, also, for the honorable and very 

 flattering manner in which he has noticed my previous labors. 



The mass of evidence and the numerous illustrations exhibited 

 by Col. Reid, have happily left but little for me to attempt on the 

 present occasion ; and I proceed, Mr. Editor, to notice in a brief 

 manner some few of the topics which your anonymous corres- 

 pondent, under the signature of "Stormy Jack," has discussed in 

 your pages ; and whoni, as the subject has now become more gen- 

 erally interesting, your readers will hope to meet under his own 

 proper signature. 



This writer appears, at an earlier period, to have assumed the 

 hypothesis that the hurricanes of the inter-tropical latitudes origi- 

 nate in the variables or calm latitudes, which border upon the 

 exterior limit of the trade winds. But in the reports of Lieut. 

 James of H. M. Steam Packet Spep, and in other accounts, 



statement of his observations ; and it is owing chiefly, perhaps, to this cause, that 

 several redundancies, and some suggestions on collateral points, require to be ex- 

 punged from that paper. This explanation is thought to be due to those readers 

 who are now referred to the first named communication in> Silliman's Journal for 

 1831, but need not be applied to the conclusions or opinions which have been ad- 

 vanced in the subsequent papers. 



