644 Researches on the Gale and Hurricane QAugust, 



a supposition, that the hurricanes in the Bay of Bengal travel from the 

 Eastward to the Westward,* and it may be quite safe to calculate 

 upon their blowing in a circle from right to left. 



We must then assume this point, and supposing we have the wind 

 at ESE. we are then somewhere upon the line leading from the NNE. 

 point of the hurricane-circle to its centre. 



If the wind now veers to SE. and SSE. we can easily understand 

 that the centre has passed somewhere to the Southward of us, and 

 that we are upon the right hand side of its track. 



But if the wind had begun at North, and veered to the N. West 

 and West we can also understand that the hurricane is passing some- 

 where to the Northward of us, and that we are upon the left hand side 

 of its path. At what distance we are from the centre can only be 

 judged of by the quickness with which the wind veers round; and it 

 will be clear that if a ship stood exactly still with the hurricane 

 coming direct towards her, she might have the wind always in one 

 direction till the centre passed her, when she would probably have a 

 shift exactly in the opposite direction. f 



The seaman will now understand how it is that he may be run- 

 ning into a Hurricane or scudding in company with one — which no 

 one of course desires to do — and how important it is that a know- 

 ledge of their usual paths should be obtained ; for they seem to have in 

 all countries tracks which we may call their usual paths. 



As an example how a vessel may run into a hurricane, let us sup- 

 pose upon our Chart, the Amherst, bound across the Bay fromChittagong 

 to Coringa. It is clear that her course then lies across the track of the 

 Hurricane, and that, if ignorant of what we now know, she might with 

 a little alteration of time, and tempted by the fine Easterly Gale, run 

 into the middle of it; for till now, though a falling Barometer would 

 teach the seaman that he was to expect a tempest, he was quite igno- 

 rant, or had only some general rules derived from very partial expe- 

 rience, to inform him where it was beginning, how it would blow, and 

 how he could escape it. We shall know this as I have said before, 

 when we know the usual path of our Indian Hurricanes. 



* In an able review of Col. Reid's work in No. 23 of the Madras Journal of Liter- 

 ature and Science by T. G. Taylor, Esq. H. C. Astronomer at Madras, he says, " The 

 East India Gales appear invariably to travel from the coast of Arracan towards the 

 West, the curves conforming gradually to the slope of the shore until in about the 

 latitude of Madras when their course is due South, after which the curve binds again 

 towards the West, the violence of the storm seldom extending below Cuddon or Porto 

 Novo." Mr. Taylor speaks here oi&gale. He does not observe that he has described 

 the curve which a hurricane (i. e. a turning gale) would make on three sides of its circle. 



f Col. Rcid, p. 8. 



