1851.] A Twentieth Memoir on the Law of Storms. 199 



bound, meeting the Cyclone coming up from the Southward and in 

 scudding to cross in front of it, not having accurately calculated its 

 track, she ran too near to the centre, and at 11 a. m. broached to with 

 a shift of wind from North to N. W. so that the centre must have 

 been at this time close to the Eastward and by noon to the N. East- 

 ward of her estimated position, which is given in the extract from the 

 log. The Neerlandsch Indie also had the calm of the centre by 3 

 p. m.* the shift being from E. N. E. to W. S. W. which gives a N. 

 N. W. track for the Cyclone, while our projected one is N. 15° West. 

 By Noon on this day it was also reaching False Point and the Pilot 

 stationf where all the vessels had a N. E. gale commencing, and the 

 H. C. P. V. Tavoy which had stood to sea, having had as will be seen 

 in Mr. Ransom's able report, all the signs of an approaching Cyclone 

 in the course of the 25th and morning of the 26th. This vessel was 

 at noon about 40 miles to the South of the Outer Floating Light and. 

 had from daylight a gale oscillating from N. East to East ; a bank col- 

 lecting to the S. W.J is also noted in Mr. Ransom's table. At noon 

 the Tavoy had the singular interval of perfect calm in the middle of 

 the gale, which he refers to the treacherous calm (meaning the trea- 

 cherous interval of fine weather), which I have so often noted at the 

 onset of a Cyclone, and which has occasioned the dismasting of so 

 many ships by inducing them to make sail, thinking the gale was over 

 though their glasses had not risen ; and we may indeed suppose that 

 many have been lost through it, for had Mr. Ransom been a young or 

 over-sanguine commander, or one with great anxiety to make a pas- 

 sage and little accustomed to tropical tempests, we may easily imagine 

 him making sail and his vessel blown over and foundering with the 

 fierce hurricane which followed, before he could take it in again. The 

 Joseph Manook 40 miles to the Eastward of the Tavoy, did not experi- 

 ence this calm but had the same indications of a Cyclone. It is inter- 

 esting to trace here, as we fortunately can so accurately do, the state 

 of the weather from the Tavoy 's position inwards. 



* To avoid confusion this ship's position of noon 26th, being close at the centre, 

 is not marked on the Chart. 



f As usual with them when a Cyclone is approaching, and probably owing to the 

 effect of the land. 



t Probably the Atalanta's and False Point Cyclone. 



