388 Eighth Memoir on the [No. 137. 



drifts. It is probable, that as the Feversham had no observation, she 

 may have been in error.* The whole difference which these con- 

 siderations make is not much, but I note them to shew that nothing 

 is overlooked. Are they to be accounted for by the theory that the pro- 

 gressive motion of a rotatory storm, particularly when as in this case 

 it is a rapidly moving one (12 or 13 miles an hour) tends to gene- 

 rate the rotatory motion farther before it ? We know so little of how 

 they act, that this supposition is at least worth mentioning. Most ac- 

 counts of storms seem to agree in this, that the force of storms and the 

 rise of the Barometer are greater and more rapid than their increase or 

 its fall. I have marked on the chart, the spot where the Washington 

 foundered on the 25th. As she had the hurricane from the Eastward, 

 she was to the Northward of its track, and must have drifted up after 

 it was over with the S. Easterly winds, which we see the Lady Fever- 

 sham had, and which indeed seem usually to follow the N. E. qua- 

 drants of the storms, and sometimes their S. E. quadrants also. The 

 ship seen by the Washington was probably the Lady Feversham, 

 which had only a foremast left standing, though this last vessel's log 

 does not mention any other vessel in sight; but when all hands are 

 busy rigging jury masts and pumping, the look out is rarely attended 

 to. The Washington in her sinking state, was no doubt most anxi- 

 ously looking for ships. 



We have now to consider the probable place of the centre at Noon 

 on the 24th, which day it will be recollected is that of the storm's 

 reaching Madras and Pondicherry. At Madras the veering of the 

 wind N. N. E. by N. E. and East to S. E., with fine weajher, shews 

 clearly enough, that the centre passed to the South of that place, while 

 the veering of the wind at Pondicherry from N. W. by the West to 

 S. W., shews also, that it passed close to the Northward of that set- 

 tlement; the short calm interval noted in the reports being the time 

 of the passage of the centre. This is stated to have been at 20 minutes 

 past 5.t 



* See concluding remarks. 



f The lowest depression of the Barometer at Madras is stated to have been at 4 p. m. 

 29.704 ; it seems to have been 4.45, p. m. before the wind was at East, but as I have al- 

 ready-explained before, the direction of the wind varies much on approaching the 

 land. 



