642 Researches on the Gale and Hurricane EAugust, 



Practical Remarks and Deductions. 



I have quoted at p. 563 an opinion expressed in my hearing, that it 

 was thought by the individual that " they would not make much of it." 

 Few I think who have perused the preceding pages, will be inclined 

 to repeat this, but still as the plain man and the practical seaman 

 may not so readily arrive at all the conclusions to be drawn from the 

 knowledge we have collected of this single tempest, I have been in- 

 duced to sum them up here. 



My original intention was to delay doing this, and even the publica- 

 tion of this memoir, until I could collect also what was to be gleaned 

 from the records now existing of our former gales and hurricanes, 

 and then accompany the whole with practical deductions ; but it was 

 suggested to me by Professor O'Shaughnessy, that by the delay which 

 this would occasion, we should loose the opportunity of exciting public 

 attention to the subject before the approach of the autumnal gales, 

 and moreover, that even by publishing our knowledge in this yet im- 

 perfect state, we might nevertheless, possibly, avert mischief. This I 

 thought sound counsel, and therefore propose to make our former 

 Indian tempests the subject of a future memoir. 



It will then be recollected that what is here said is merely the 

 amount of our present knowledge, and that what is said is rather 

 meant as a suggestion than as a rule. I shall however distinctly state 

 the grounds from which the various inferences are drawn, and it will 

 be for every man to exercise his own judgment thereupon; I shall 

 also acknowledge when I borrow from Colonel Reid, or other writers. 



Clearly to comprehend this theory of gales and hurricanes, let us 

 begin with the words. As I have elsewhere said, the words are not to 

 be used so much with relation to the force of the wind in a storm, as 

 to its motion. 



A storm, or tempest, may mean either a Gale or Hurricane, but it 

 always means a storm of wind, and not, as frequently used by lands- 

 men, one of thunder and lightning only ; unless so expressed. 



A gale means a storm of wind, the direction of which is tolerably 

 steady for a long time, sometimes not only for days but for weeks. 



A hurricane means a turning storm of wind blowing with great 

 violence, and shifting more or less suddenly, so as to blow half or 

 entirely round the compass in a few hours. 



With this explanation of our words we shall better understand the 

 things treated of. 



The present state of our knowledge seems to show that for the West 

 Indies, Bay of Bengal, and China Sea, the wind in a hurricane 



