Cyclones. 339 



cyclone's south-east side from north-east. The vessel scudded, 

 and was driven before the wind three times round the centre of 

 the cyclone, while the courses steered and the distances run 

 over, as before, were hourly entered in the ship's log. The 

 first turn of 126 miles was performed in twelve hours; the 

 second, of 85 miles, in eight hours ; and between the second 

 and third turns the " Earl Dalhousie" emerged from the storm 

 into the calm centre of the cyclone, where the sky was almost 

 clear, and the barometer fell three-quarters of an inch. The 

 spiral incurving of the wind in this case is indicated by the 

 narrowing circles of the ship's track. Birds and insects, in 

 fact, are thus driven inwards towards the centre of a cyclone. 

 Immediately on entering into the storm, the masts and yards 

 of the " Earl Dalhousie" were thus crowded with exhausted 

 dragon- flies. A peculiar red colour of the sky, often remarked 

 in cyclones, was also observed, the deep purple rays of the 

 setting sun giving the clouds a very wild appearance while the 

 ship approached the outskirts of the storm. 



In high latitudes, revolving storms occur at Cape Horn, 

 the Cape of Good Hope, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and on the 

 western coasts of Europe. The severe gale at the Cape of 

 Good Hope on the 1 7th of May, and another at Monte Video 

 in August, during the present year, were probably revolving 

 storms, proceeding on their usual course from west towards the 

 east. On the coast of North America, as already stated, the 

 tracks of many storms have been assigned. These issue from 

 the centre of the continent, on straight-line tracks, across the 

 great American Lakes and the Gulf of St. Lawrence towards 

 the North Atlantic Ocean. They spread themselves so far, 

 that one near Nova Scotia, on the 16th of December, 1839, is 

 said to have reversed the trade winds on the Bahamas a 

 thousand miles from its centre. Another, which passed over 

 Halifax, in Nova Scotia, early in January, 1828, was followed 

 by tempestuous weather in England, at Plymouth, at an 

 interval of about a week, and is even suspected to have crossed 

 the Atlantic Ocean from America to the British Islands, a 

 distance of more than 2000 miles. 



Two companion cyclones, whose centres passed nearly over 

 Ireland, in a south to north direction, on the 26th and 28th of 

 November, 1838, came from another part of the Atlantic. The 

 last of these circular storms, as traced by Mr. Milne in the 

 Philosophical Transactions, included the Azores, Madeira, and a 

 large part of western Europe in its whirl. A great part of 

 the contrast of climates between the opposite coasts of Europe 

 and America may be supposed to arise from the existence of 

 such cyclones on the North Atlantic Ocean, as well as from the 

 direction of the regular anti-trade winds. Frequent north-east 



