14 Seventeenth Memoir on the Law of Storms. [Jan. 



The wind here seems to have been steady at N. b E. from 6 p. m. 

 to 3. a. m. or for 9 hours, or as nearly so as could be ascertained at 

 night, and in such weather, during which time we may allow the ship to 

 have made a drift of at least 3 miles per hour, or 27 miles in all. The 

 fall of the Barometer from 5. p. m. to 10. p. m. was from 29.60 to 

 29.00 or 0.60. in 5 hours, giving an average fall of 0.12 per hour. 

 By the rule given at p. 199, of the Sailor's Horn Book, this would give 

 80 miles for the distance of the centre at 1\ p. m., and we find that it 

 passed her, though without any calm, about 4 a. m. on the following 

 morning, or at 8^ hours from this time, which would give a rate of tra- 

 velling of somewhat less than ten miles per hour. 



We find that though the ship was drifting to the southward (about 

 S. b. W. appears to have been the drift made good by the log) she still 

 had the wind steady from N. b. E. up to 3 a. m., which would give her 

 a drift of say 22 miles about up to 4 a. m. when, as the wind was N. 

 W., the centre then passing close to the northward of her position bore 

 N. E. of her. Projecting this it gives a course of from E. \ N. to W. 

 J S. for the track of the storm, which is that which I have assigned 

 to it. 



Cyclones of 1845. 



The following newspaper notice is all that I possess relating to this Cy- 

 clone, if it was one, for it may have been only the onset of the monsoon, 

 though the veering of the wind being as much as ten points, gives great 

 probability to the supposition that it may have been a true Cyclone 

 travelling to the south-westward. My principal motive for inserting 

 it however is the season at which it occurred, which is earlier than any 

 tyfoon of which we have a record, and we may, as so frequently has 

 been the case, obtain other documents to connect with it. At present 

 I do not insert it as a track, but it will serve to put the vigilant mariner 

 on his guard. 



" Typhoon in the China seas. — Captain Uceda of the Spanish brig Dardo, which 

 arrived here a few days since from Manilla, reports the occurrence of a severa 

 typhoon in the China seas, experienced by the Dardo in Lat. 14° 00' N. ; 

 and Long. 119° 30' East. The typhoon commenced on the 21st of May, from 

 W. N. W., varied to W. then S. W. and terminated on the 24th May at S. The 

 only injury sustained by the Dardo was the loss of her top-gallant masts, but it 

 is feared that vessels in the China seas may have suffered severely from the effects 

 of the typhoon." — Singapore Free Press, July 27, 1845. 



