1848.] Fifteenth Memoir on the Law of Storms. 45 



as will be seen, on the 1 5th it must have been a storm travelling in 

 towards the coast from the W. S. W., and breaking up immediately, 

 if it was one on the \bth. 



To dispose then first of the East London's storm. We find that 

 this vessel had run in 72 miles towards Cape Comorin, to the E. N. 

 E., from noon 14th, to noon 15th, and that her N. W. gale of the 

 14th had veered to W. N. W., and at p. m. on the 15th it was W. S. 

 W., " blowing furiously." 



This would give the centre of a true rotatory storm as bearing 

 N. N. "W. from her; but if one, it must have been of much smaller di- 

 mensions than that of the 14th, since at this time, (though at 2 a. m. it 

 had blown in heavy squalls from the S. S. E.) at Alleppee, it was then 

 moderate, at S. E. with drizzling rain ; and the Buckinghamshire 175 

 miles to the N. W. b. W. of the East London, had fresh gales at N. 

 E., and at midnight her Barometer rather rising than falling ; though 

 this might have been the effect of her standing, though but slowly, to 

 the N. W. I am then inclined to think that, if this storm of the East 

 London's was rotatory, and not as before suggested the precursor of 

 the monsoon, that it was of still smaller extent to-day, and just ter- 

 minating ; and that it was moreover so nearly stationary that it only 

 made the short distance which I have marked for it, of 42 miles in 

 the 24 hours, and this to the E. N. E.,* and all this is very conjectural, 

 for a veering of 6 points in 36 hours, when approaching a high shore, 

 and from the quarter from which the incoming monsoon is expected, is 

 not conclusive evidence for its rotatory character ; and the storm of the 

 ketch Ceylon Island, which in Lat. 7° , when between Long. 79° and 

 77° 30 ; , and on the 16th and 17th, had a smart Easterly gale can form 

 no part of this of the East London's, for it must have been to the South- 

 ward and Eastward of her on those days, when (on the 16th) the East 

 London had the wind at S. "W. off Cape Comorin, and moderating by 



of Commerce, states that the first effects of the gale on the 16th, were from the S. W., 

 and were supposed there to be an early setting in of the monsoon. 



* This is quite against the usual track of our Indian storms, but such tracks do un- 

 doubtedly occur on the Western Coast of Australia, and I suspect of South America. 

 Seethe "Sailor's Horn Book of Storms, for all parts of the world," just published. 

 The proofs of hurricanes being often nearly stationary for a time, are numerous. See 

 XI. Memoir in this Journal, Vol. — 



