146 APPENDIX. 



the lower yard arms, first, then removes to the top-sail yards, and so on till it 

 reaches the mast head. An old officer of the ci-devant East India Company, 

 tells me, that on one of his voyages the look-out man proclaimed, " a li<rht 

 ahead," and on some officers proceeding to ascertain whence it emanated, 

 they were astonished to find this electric light in possession of both ends of the 

 spritsail yard. 



Reverting to the subject of Atlantic revolving storms, let me add in con- 

 clusion, that I consider their usual course, indeed their never varyinof course, 

 is from the AVest Indies northwards between the Bermudas and the North 

 American coast to latitude 30, where they head to the north-east, and passing 

 Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, rush onwards towards Europe. Bermuda 

 thus represents a sort of turning point, round which these storms describe their 

 course, but at such a distance as most frequently to avoid coming into collision 

 with the spot. Exceptions of course take place, especially in the winter season, 

 when Bermuda gets a full share of these revolving gales. Now, from Nova 

 Scotia to the meridian of 30 west, these gales must have prevailed during 

 December and January, for in that longitude their violence was something ter- 

 rible to contemplate — witness the wreck of the " Christiana," the "Jane Low- 

 den," and a host of other ships, all crumpled up in the open sea, in a manner 

 truly marvellous. These storms were movinff to the north-east, and most as- 

 suredly did not commence their motion in that longitude, but far away in the 

 tropics; generated by that great motive power, heat^ the source of all motion, 

 if I mistake not. Well, from longitude 30 to our own shores, the track of these 

 storms is only too distinctly marked out by the dismal amount of ships and 

 cargoes that have been strewed in fragments upon the surface of the sea, and 

 to which brave men have too often clung in the vain attempt of saving their 

 lives. The rest we know and will pass over for the present. 



Bear in mind that in the Indian Ocean, north of the equator, where no cold 

 Arctic current is known, its revolving storms move in the same direction, turn 

 in the same latitude, and obey the same laws as those of the Atlantic. Also, 

 that none but straight winds belong to the temperate regions of the earth ; 

 that the coast of Africa lies almost entirely within the tropics, where trade 

 winds always prevail ; and that whenever a revolving storm appears in the 

 north, we may safely set it down as a tropical wanderer. I cannot for a 

 moment entertain the idea that revolving storms can be generated to the north 

 of the tropics. 



Fourteen years of isolation in the Bermudas made me somewhat familiar 

 with the winds of the Atlantic, and I can confidently assert that no hurricane 

 or revolving gale, great or small, ever came upon us there except from the 

 south or south-west. Taking all these circumstances into consideration, could 

 we otherwise conclude than that the revolving storms which annually speed 

 on their destructive course over the wide waters of the North Atlantic, origi- 

 nate In the region of the tropics. 



