1849.] Seventeenth Memoir on the Law of Storms. 7 



Tracks C. and D. 

 Chusan and Tung-hai* Tyfoons, September 1843. 



The tracing of these Cyclones in so high a latitude is of great interest 

 as connected with those of the Japanese and Formosan seas. I am 

 indebted to Commander Vyner, H. M. S. Wolf, for the following. 



" On the 1st of September 1843, a hurricane commenced, the centre of which 

 passed over the Chusan archipelago, doing immense damage, and it would 

 appear that the whirlwind was travelling from the S. E. to the N. W., as it was 

 felt severely at Woosung in the Yang-tse-kiang river, about 120 miles from 

 Chusan, about nine hours afterwards. 



At about sunset of the 31st of August a dirty appearance of the weather began, 

 wind from the N. N. E. with drizzling rain ; about \ past nine at night the 

 wind began to increase and the Barometer to fall a little ; at 10.30 p. m. a hur- 

 ricane commenced at its full power from N. E. suddenly, and then the barometer 

 commenced to fall rapidly, and by 2 a. m. of the 1st was at 28.22 and did not 

 go lower. The commencement of the hurricane was so sudden that no appre- 

 hension was contemplated by any of H. M. ships or those of the merchant ser- 

 vice, all being taken by surprise with their boats in the water, and top-gallant 

 yards across. 



in company, ran up on a N. W. course from the 22d to the 23rd, just across the 

 Eastern and S. Eastern borders of the Cyclones of the ships London Thetis and 

 Calcutta Thetis, with, of course, a heavy S. Westerly gale amounting in violence to a 

 tyfoon, and on the 23rd, when exactly on the track over which the Cyclone of track 

 B. had just passed, they hove too fearful of a shift of wind. I need not remark that 

 they would have been perfectly safe in running on then. We have thus, from the logs of 

 three separate ships an exact corroboration of what was originally laid down from two. 

 * Tung-hai, (the Eastern Sea,) is the name given by the Chinese to the sea in- 

 closed between their Eastern coasts and the chain of islands which stretches from the 

 south of Corea and includes Japan and Formosa. The Northern part of this sea from 

 about 35° North, is the Wang-Hai or Yellow sea. The Japanese or Japan sea is the 

 sea to the North of Japan and to the East of Corea. We want a fixed name for this 

 first sea, for Eastern sea is far too indefinite ; it might be distinguished by its Chinese 

 name of Tung Hai, or as the Formosa sea ? though this last might confound it again 

 with the Straits of Formosa. Perhaps the Loo-Choo Sea would be the best we 

 could choose for it, and I have so called it on my Chart ? In a French Atlas of 1838, 

 the straits between Formosa and the Coast of China (our straits of Formosa) are 

 called the straits of Fokien, and the Tung Hai, for which I propose the name of the 

 Loo Choo Sea, is called the Corean Sea, which would more appropriately belong to 

 the Yellow sea. These names are of no great consequence, it will be said, but, it is 

 to be regretted that we cannot settle them. 



