278 British Association for the Advmicemetit of Science. 



work he states his behef that hurricanes will be found to be great 

 whirlwinds ; and says, " it would not perhaps be a matter of 

 great difficulty to ascertain the situation of a ship in a whirl- 

 wind, by observing the strength and changes of the wind. If 

 the changes are sudden, and the wind violent, in all probability 

 the ship must be near the center of the vortex of the whirlwind ; 

 whereas, if the wind blows a great length of time from the same 

 point, and the changes are gradual, it may reasonably be suppo- 

 sed that the ship is near the extremity of it." In this conjecture 

 respecting the nature of hurricanes, Col. Reid conceived Col. 

 Capper to be decidedly right, and the conclusion he drew from it 

 has stood the test of close examination. Mr. Redfield, following 

 up the observation of Franklin, and though probably unac- 

 quainted with the views or opinions of Capper, ascertained that 

 while the northeast storms were blowing on the shores of Amer- 

 ica, the wind was with equal violence blowing a southwest storm 

 in the Atlantic. Tracking Franklin's storms from the southward, 

 he found, throughout their course, that the wind on opposite 

 sides of the shore over which the storm prevailed, blew in oppo- 

 site directions, and that in fact, the entire storm ivas a progres- 

 sive ivhirlwind, and that all these whirlwinds revolved constantly 

 in the same direction. In a No. of the American Journal of Sci- 

 ence, (for 1831,) Col. Reid found collected together many records 

 of the same storms, and a chart on a very small scale, showing 

 the progress of one. Strongly impressed with the conviction 

 that Mr. Redfield's views were correct, he determined to verify 

 them by making charts on a large scale, and laying down on 

 them the different reports of the directions of the wind at points 

 given in the American Journal of Science : and the more exactly 

 this was done, the nearer was the approximation to the tracks of 

 a progressive whirlwind.* He then exhibited to the Section a 

 volume,! containing eight charts on a large scale, of which the 



* Having, in consequence of our frequent intercourse with Mr. Redfield, been 

 acquainted with the progress of his inquiries and discoveries, we may here state 

 that the course adopted by Col. Reid, of plotting on a large chart, the various re- 

 ports of a storm, had been employed many years previous, by Mr. R., and indeed 

 led him to his most important conclusions. We ipay also mention that we are 

 sure that Mr. R. has not to this day, seen Col. Capper's book, and that he was not 

 aware of its existence until just before the reception of Col. Reid's work. — Eds. 



t See a notice of this work, p. 133 of this volume. — Eds. 



