346 EXPEDITION TO JAPAN. 



tively. But the more moderate forces of the cyclone must have extended very far beyond these 

 approximate limits. 



A more extended notice of this storm may he found in my communications to the American 

 Journal of Science, and the London Nautical Magazine, published in January, 1839, in which 

 I have also comprised accounts of various other cyclones of great violence which have passed 

 over the China sea, and the regions near Canton and Formosa, in different years. The tracts of 

 some of these are well illustrated by the typhoon of the Raleigh. I omit, therefore, the close 

 grouping which their delineation would require on the chart. 



On the southern coast of China the semi-annual changes of -the monsoons are found to occur 

 in April, and about the end of September, varying somewhat in different years. Typhoons 

 often cross the China sea, more commonly from May to October, on routes corresponding in 

 direction to those of the hurricanes of the West Indies and the lower latitudes of the Atlantic, 

 and with like characteristics. That inquiring old voyager, Dampier, states that on the coast of 

 Tonquin the typhoons are expected in the months of July, August, and September. It will be 

 noticed that these are also deemed to be hurricane months in the lower latitudes of the Atlantic, 

 east of Yucatan, and that no special connexion with the periods of change in the monsoons is 

 indicated. Dampier says that in these typhoons "the wind comes on fierce, and blows very 

 violent at N.E. twelve hours, more or less. When the wind begins to abate, it dies away sud- 

 denly, and falling flat calm, it continues so an hour, more or less, when the wind comes about 

 to the S.W., and it blows and rains as fierce from thence as it did before from the N.E., and as 

 long." A better description of the phenomena of a violent cyclone, on its centre path in the 

 lower latitudes, and before its recurvation, could hardly be given. 



CYCLONE OF THE ANNIE BUCKMAN, IN FEBRUARY, 1853. 



Among the valuable collections of the Expedition is an extract from the log of the American 

 barque Annie Buckman, Henry Barber, commander, and furnished by him to Lieutenant Wil- 

 liam L. Maury. It will aid in dispelling the error that typhoons and hurricanes are only 

 periodical in their occurrence in the torrid zone. 



At noon of February 3, 1853, the Annie Buckman, sailing for Canton, was in latitude 12° 

 30' N.j longitude 129° 16' E., several degrees east of the Philippine islands, with the barometer 

 at 29. 75, and a double-reefed topsail breeze from the N.E. quarter. In the period between 

 this date and the 9th the vessel was subject to a very violent typhoon, during which both the 

 direction of the wind and the course of the vessel went round the compass, by the north, west, 

 and south, to the N.E. quarter on the 9th. At noon of this day the barque was in latitude 

 18° 09' N., longitude 127° 25' E., barometer 29.80. Of the few entries given of the barometer 

 the lowest was 29.25, at 4 p. m. of February 7th; wind then from the westward, and increasing 

 soon after to its greatest violence. 



Captain Barber states that in twenty years navigation, in all oceans, he had not encountered 

 a hurricane so violent. Its path is indicated on the chart. 



Bonin Islands. — These islands, according to Commander Hammet, of H. M. ship Serpent, are 

 subject to typhoons, but he states they are not frequent. 



In October, 1853, the United States ship Plymouth, belonging to the Japan Expedition, was 

 lying in Lloyd's Harbor, where on the 25th she encountered a typhoon, in which an officer and 

 a boat's crew, then absent from the ship, were lost. According to the report of the acting 

 master to Commodore Perry, it commenced with squalls of wind from E.S.E., under which the 



