On the Gales and Hurricanes of the Western Atlantic. 127 



on the 11th of November, 1835. This storm was very extensive, 

 spreading from the sea-coast of Virginia into the Canadas, to a limit, 

 at present, unknown. The anterior portion of this gale was but 

 moderately felt, and its access was noted chiefly, by the direction of 

 the wind, and the great fall of the barometer ; the violence of the 

 storm being chiefly exhibited by the posterior and colder portion of 

 the gale, as is common with extensive overland storms. The regu- 

 lar progression of this storm in an easterly direction is clearly estab- 

 lished, by facts, collected by the writer, from the borders of Lake 

 Michigan, to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the sea-coasts of New 

 England and Nova Scotia. 



I have thus given a summary description of the route of twelve 

 storms, or hurricanes, which have visited the American coasts and 

 seas, at various periods, and at different seasons of the year. The 

 lines on the chart, which represent the routes, are but approxima- 

 tions to the center of the track or course of the several storms ; and 

 the gales are to be considered as extending their rotative circuit from 

 fifty to three hundred miles, or more, on each side of the delinea- 

 tions ; the superficial extent of the storm being estimated both by 

 actual information and by its duration at any point near the central 

 portion of its route, as compared with its average rate of progress. 

 The figure which appears upon the chart, on tracks No. I, IV, and 

 VII, will serve in some degree to illustrate the course of the wind 

 in the various portions of the superficies covered by the storm, and 

 also, to explain the changes in the direction of the wind which occur 

 successively at various points, during the regular progress of the gale. 

 The dimensions of the several storms, appear also to have gradually 

 expanded during their course. 



Storms of this character do not often act with great violence on 

 any considerable extent of interior country to which they may arrive. 

 Even upon the coasts on which they enter, such violence is not often 

 experienced under the posterior limb of the gale which sweeps back 

 from its circuit over the land, the usual woodlands and elevations 

 being a sufficient protection. Often, indeed, the interior elevations 

 afford such shelter as entirely to neutralize the effect of the wind at 

 and near the surface, and the presence and passage of the hurricane 

 is, in such cases, to be noted chiefly by the unusual depression, 

 which the great whirling movement of the incumbent stratum of air 

 produces in the mercury of the barometer, which thus indicates the 

 presence or passage of the hurricane, in positions where the force of 

 the wind is not felt at all, or only with a moderate degree of violence. 



