346 THE WEST INDIAN HURRICANE 



Guadeloupe suffered severely, and on the island of Montserrat 

 nearly 100 persons were reported killed and villages and estates 

 were destined. On the islands of Nevis, St Christopher, and 

 Antigua the storm was less severe, while the Danish island of St 

 Croix was the only one of the Virgin islands which suffered 

 to any great extent. 



Between 8 and 9 a. m. of August 8 the hurricane center passed 

 over or very near the south coast of Puerto Rico, attended hy an 

 appalling loss of life and property, and by the morning of the 

 9th had reached a position near the north coast of Santo 

 Domingo. Following a west-northwest track, the hurricane 

 center arrived at the eastern Bahamas and evidently passed near 

 Grand Turk island during the night of the 9th. The position 

 and course of the storm during the succeeding twenty-four hours 

 were approximately determined by the distant Weather Bureau 

 stations of observation at Santiago and Puerto Principe, Cuba, 

 and by regular and special reports received through the coopera- 

 tion of the colonial government at Nassau, Bahamas. By the 

 morning of the 11th there was evidence at Nassau of the 

 approach of the storm-center. During the day the barometer 

 fell rapidly, with increasing northeast winds and heavy rain, 

 and during the evening cable communication between Nassau 

 and Jupiter, Fla., was lost. On the following day, August 12, 

 the barometer fell rapidly at Jupiter, with wind increasing to a 

 gale from the northeast, and by the morning of the 13th the 

 barometer at that station had fallen to 29.22 inches and the wind 

 had reached a velocity of 52 miles an hour. From the 14th to 

 the 19th the storm-center drifted slowly northward and north- 

 eastward along the Atlantic coast, attended by severe gales and 

 high seas from Florida to Virginia, after which it apparently 

 passed eastward over the ocean beyond the region of land 

 observation. 



With data now available it is, not possible to determine the 

 intensity of this hurricane at various points along its course. 

 During August 7 and 8 the character and extent of the destruc- 

 tion it caused will give it rank among the historical hurricanes of 

 the Leeward islands, Puerto Rico, and Santo Domingo. During 

 the period it occupied in advancing from Santo Domingo over 

 the Bahama islands and thence northward off the Atlantic coast 

 of the United States, no observations have been received which 

 show the exact strength of the storm as measured by in- 

 strumental observations. Observations of this character, made 



