120 On the Law of Storms, ée. 
Fish: the island stretching in the same direction, and nearly 
to the same extent, was crossed between them by the centre 
of the storm. The Rover was sheltered from the force of the 
S.E. quarter of the storm, but suffered from the last, or N.W 
quarter ; while the Flying Fish experienced the former, but 
was protected by the land from the latter. Zhe off-shore 
wind was modified in both cases. The curvature of the track 
of this storm is well defined. That the centre was to the 
west of Vitileva is shown by the order of veering there, and 
by the storm not extending to Tonga. ‘The centre was to the 
east of the Camden, in 81° 8. 175° E., and afterwards passed 
between the Bay of Islands and the Thames. Its path was 
therefore convex to the eastward, and, in obedience to the 
law of continuity, the centre must have passed down the 
west coast of New Zealand, and moved more and more in a 
westerly direction, until between the parallels of 60° and 70°S. 
it would pass the meridian of Van Diemen’s Land, travel- 
ling slowly to the westward, like the hurricane met with by 
the Vincennes in the preceding month.* 
* | find that at page 48 of Piddington’s “ Sailors’ Storm Book,” speaking 
of New Zealand storms, the author alludes to that of the 29th February, 1840, 
as a true tropical hurricane, its course being to the south-westward ; and adds 
the following note :—‘‘ Its track to the south-westward, or perhaps S.S.W. 
after crossing the island, I am enabled perhaps to corroborate from a log in my 
possession of the ship Adelaide, which vessel, between the Ist and 2nd of March, 
about 8} degrees due west of Cape Egmont, experienced a smart gale, com- 
mencing at about E. by S. or H.S.E. and veering to S. by E., reducing her 
to close reefs with a heavy cross sea. This, roughly calculated, gives 340 
miles for 36 hours, or about 10 miles per hour.” 
