A NEW VIEW OF THE WEATHER QUESTION. 287 



and the effects of land and water; it was indeed beautifully and appropriately 

 named by those sons of nature whom we term Indians. At this season of the 

 year these winds are peculiar, in that they rise with the sun and die away with 

 it, conclusively showing that heat is the cause of the wind. Though the wind 

 dies away with the sun it very soon springs up again, and this may seem to con- 

 trovert the theory, but instead it only substantiates it. The wind springs up but 

 veers to the south or southeast, according to the trend of the coast, this being 

 caused by the better retention of the heat by the land than by the water. Dur- 

 ing the day it is on the water, up off the northeast coast. The night cools the 

 water, the land retains the heat, so a current is established landward. 



LXXXIII. Later in the season, and indeed, earlier too, low is for much of 

 the time still off in the ocean, but in a lower latitude, generating a northwest 

 wind, causing fierce storms in the neighborhood of that storm centre off the coast 

 of Hatteras, lying between there and the Bermuda Islands, in the locality by 

 sailors called the "Devil's Corner." Sailors oftentimes have very expressive 

 names for places and things. This is the locality where concentrated and even 

 protracted lows are generated, therefore, a locality of storms; hence the name 

 implying a very bad place — one to be avoided, and one where much caution 

 must be exercised when necessity forces one to pass it. Yet this locality is not 

 always deserving of this name; during the winter and spring months it would 

 seem to be the most appropriate. 



LXXXIV. Under Low.— We see that low barometer is continually on the 

 march, from point to point, from the land to the sea and from the sea to the land. 

 After a storm has passed to the eastward the wind comes out more or less fiercely 

 from the west ; the sky is cleared of clouds; the wind hangs in this quarter for a 

 a day or two, and, though cool at first, finally dies away, and in summer it comes 

 out very hot and dry. These are probably the most trying days in summer, but 

 this condition is not generally of long duration. Low is all the while as it were 

 swimming 'round a circle of larger or smaller dimensions. Narragansett Bay in 

 summer is a fine place to watch these changes. They generally occur about an 

 hour or two after mid-day. At such times it is a common sight to see boats at 

 different points sailing down as well as up the bay before the wind, though very lit- 

 tle wind, and with a space of perhaps a mile or two between where it is all calm, 

 with a slight flow of wind, first one way then another ; the north wind and west- 

 erly wind receding and the southerly wind gaining, and by and by coming out a 

 good breeze to the southwest. Low, in order to make this change, has the while 

 been shifting, and perhaps the governing one in this case is located up in the 

 northeast, just off the ocean. 



The partial wreck of the steamer Massachusetts, while on her eastern trip 

 in Long Island Sound, the early part of November, 1877, is a good illustration 

 of the change of wind in a similar manner, yet more sudden. A heavy southeast 

 storm had prevailed during the day. The captain of the steamer, in order to 

 avoid running the risk of exposing his boat to the fierce winds and waves of the 

 Atlantic ocean, had hugged the Long Island shore. It was very foggy weather, 



