

662 A Sixth Memoir on the Law of Storms in India. [No. 127. 



was at anchor on the 27th, about nine miles Southward of the Grand 

 Ladrone. 



H. C. Ship Hertfordshire and Danish ship Norden, arrived on the 

 25th [from the Southward] and experienced no bad weather ; the 

 latter reports that on the 24th, a very violent swell was running down 

 from the North-eastward, but the barometer indicated no change, and 

 neither of these vessels were aware of the tempest till their arrival at 

 Macao. 



At Canton early in the morning of the 23d September, commenced 

 a hard northerly gale, which continued without intermission for 

 twenty-four hours. The tide rose to a great height, and much damage 

 was sustained ; an official return to the authorities at Canton states, 

 that after it was past, one thousand four hundred and five dead bodies 

 were picked up along the coast. The gale was far more severely felt 

 at Macao and Kumsing-moon, where it is described as having been 

 truly dreadful. — Canton Papers. 



We may fairly deduce this to have been a storm of small extent, 

 running down the South Coast of China, about parallel to our Track 

 No. I, which course I have therefore assigned it as a conjectural one, 

 marking it No. XV. 



At Whampoa, on the 23d September, 1831. — A severe tyfoon was 

 experienced in China, in which several vessels were lost, and great 

 mischief done on shore. At Whampoa, where it was severely felt, the 

 wind, says Captain Forbes, H. C. S. Thames, drew round from N. to E. 

 and S. E., but was not of such violence as to be called a hurricane 

 there. 



Captain Forbes adds here a valuable note as follows : — 



Note. — I would here beg leave to mention a circumstance, which may be useful in 

 a practical point of view onsuch occasions. 1 left the H. C. S. Thames, (which I then 

 commanded,) at Whampoa, on Sunday evening the 18th September 1831, to proceed 

 to Macao in the ship's launch, arriving there next day. Before leaving the ship, I 

 happened to look into Horsburgh's Directory, page 10, of the " Introduction and gene- 

 ral remarks upon winds, &c. article ' Change of the Moon'," and said to be written by an 

 ingenious Frenchman. By the rate there laid down as to the chances of hurricanes, 

 I found that there was a great chance of one at the time it actually occurred at Macao, 

 (on the 23d September,) so I ordered two large anchors and cables to be put into the 

 launch, instead of those in common use. By this, I unquestionably saved my boat, 

 and probably her crew, besides another ship's launch which broke adrift, and was 

 saved by holding on by the Thames'." 





