1854.] A Twenty-second Memoir on the Law of Storms. 43 



consider the centre at noon on the 18th, as passing up,* somewhere 

 between the South Coco and the Andaman, where I have marked 

 the centre with an (?) and continuing its route to the JNT. b. W. or 

 perhaps even North, till it reached the unfortunate Erin. 



The log and track of the Erin, it will be seen, is that of a vessel 

 first running up parallel to the track of a Cyclone, and in fact over- 

 running it until she was overtaken by the centre, when obliged to 

 cross in front of it. Altogether a dismal instance of error and 

 mismanagement ; from the sad penalty of which she might have 

 escaped by heaving to at any time between noon of the 17th and 

 day-light of the 18th or earlier ! 



Her track and that of the Cyclone, considered together, will 

 explain the remarkable squally weather and varying winds of the 

 Cyclone noted in her log, for we find the track passing close to, or 

 perhaps over, two volcanic Islands, Barren Island, from which there 

 has been a recent eruption (1852) of considerable violence, and Nar- 

 condam ; and then out between the South Coco and Andaman. We 

 can easily suppose that the winds with the Erin, while running up 

 almost on a parallel course with the Cyclone at from seventy to 

 eighty miles distance only from its centre, were affected by this, 

 whether we consider the islands simply as mechanical obstacles 

 disturbing the regular motion of the air in its Cycles, or Barren 

 Island and Nareondam as volcanic foci, (and therefore electric 

 centres ?) exercising some peculiar influence on the electric disk of 

 the Cyclone ? The Erin's log is kept with care, and was no doubt 

 regularly seen by Captain Plum, who was a careful seaman, and bore 

 a very high reputation in Calcutta. But, if I am correctly informed, 

 he was unfortunately one of those commanders who, from disinclina- 

 tion to study and change of views, thought the Law of Storms a 

 mere shore-going speculative theory, of no practical utility at sea. 



We have no farther records of this Cyclone in the Bay so that 



it seems to have been lost or broken up about Cape Negrais. As 



an instance of a violent Cyclone in this dangerous and volcanic 



tract, it is very instructive to the seaman ; and to the meteorologist 



and naturalist not less so. 



* Perhaps even on a curved track, till it cleared the high land of the Andaman, 

 for we know that high land does influence the tracks of Cyclones though we know 

 not how, nor wliy it does so. 



G 2 



