British Association for the Advancement of Science. 279 



first and second chart contained the result of this part of the ex- 

 amination ; and he explained how the arrows showing the direc- 

 tion of the wind at the several stations were all on the right 

 hand side of the several circles flying from the south, while at 

 the stations at the left hand, or towards the east of the chart, 

 they were all coming from the north. After tracing a variety of 

 storms in north latitudes, and being impressed with the regularity 

 with which they appear to pass to the North Pole, and always 

 revolved in the same direction, viz. opposite to the hands of a 

 watch, or from the east round by the north, west, south and 

 east, — he was led to conclude, that in accordance with the order 

 of nature, storms in south latitudes would be found to revolve in 

 a contrary direction to that which they take in the northern hem- 

 isphere. He earnestly sought for facts, to ascertain if this were 

 the case, and had obtained much information confirmatory of the 

 truth of the conjecture, before he was aware that Mr. Redfield 

 had formed the same opinion. The general phenomena of these 

 storms will be understood, if the storm, as a great whirlwind, be 

 represented by a circle, whose center is made to progress along a 

 curve, which generally approaches the parabolic, the circles ex- 

 panding as they advance from the point at which the storm be- 

 gins to be felt. He pointed out how his views were illustrated 

 by the disastrous storm of 1809, experienced by the East India 

 fleet, under the convoy of the CuUoden line-of-battle ship, and 

 the Terpsichore frigate, and four British men-of-war, which left 

 the Cape of Good Hope, about the same time, intending to cruise 

 about the Mauritius. Some of these vessels scudded and ran in 

 the storm for days ; some by lying-to, got almost immediately out 

 of it, while others, by taking a wrong direction went into the 

 heart of it, foundered, and were never heard of more ; others, by 

 sailing across the calm space, met the same storm in different 

 parts of its progress and the wind blowing in opposite directions, 

 and considered and spoke of it as two storms, which they encoun- 

 tered ; while others, by cruising about within the bend of the 

 curve, but, beyond the circle of the great whirl, escaped the 

 storm altogether, which had been for days raging on all sides of 

 them. This led him to draw the very important practical con- 

 clusion as to how a ship should act when she encountered a gale, 

 so as to escape from it. By watching the mode ' of veering 

 of the wind, the portion of a storm into which a ship is fall- 



