258 Seventeenth Memoir on the Law of Storms. [March, 



was hopeless to try and keep her away, as she would not pay off, and had the 

 calm centre not providentially passed over us again, the ship and all on board 

 in another half an hour would in all probability have perished. 



The calm was precisely of the same description as the former one, but it shift- 

 ed more suddenly, and the shock, roar and fury of the wind was more instanta- 

 neous, and terrible ; the vessel was thrown on her broadside and the deck 

 was instantly filled by the previous overwhelming sea that rushed in from the 

 Southward, which must soon have torn to pieces any vessel if exposed to its 

 fury long, but fortunately with the Northerly wind there came a perfect deluge of 

 rain which speedily reduced the previous sea, and kept the new one from 

 rising. 



The Barometer rose rapidly as the rage of the Cyclone passed on, and by day- 

 light next morning there was ,a decided improvement in the appearance of the 

 weather. 



I will mention another circumstance that may be perhaps interesting, as it was 

 certainly new and startling to me, and that was that we could get none of our 

 compasses to remain steady, but at every succeeding burst of those heavy squalls 

 they spun round and round eight points at a time, and we had no other means 

 of steering but by the roll of the sea and the feel of the wind upon the back 

 part of the head, and this continued for some time after the gale had passed, and 

 rendered the approach to the land upon any safe course very precarious. Ropes 

 on board of a ship that are kept at a great degree of tension, such as the Royal 

 halyards, I have frequently noticed previous to the coming on of a breeze when 

 the weather is apparently very fine, emit a peculiar kind of singing noise, and 

 although it may seem whimsical to say so, whenever I hear it I begin to look 

 round and see that all is ready for emergencies, as on two or three occasions of 

 unsuspected bad weather, whether accidentally or not, I have noticed this pecu- 

 liarity. 



Remarks. 



This Cyclone deserves our most careful consideration on many ac- 

 counts, but principally from its being the first authentic record we have 

 of a Cyclone curving off to the Westward when approaching the tropic ; 

 though it had already been conjectured by Mr. Redfield, Col. Reid and 

 myself* from analogy that this might take place on the coast of China. 



We find, then, that on the 17th, the Easurain was at about 40 miles 

 from the Western Coast of Luconia, in 17° 13' North, with a gale from 

 the North, which at 10 p. m. veered toN. W. b. N., and at midnight 

 was a hurricane. 



* Horn Book for the Eastern Seas, p. 24. 



