232 winds; climate. 



may then blow again from the opposite quarter. 

 By close attention it may be remarked, that the 

 motions of the vane are not without a law, but 

 that, if it stands, for instance, on the south-east 

 side of the advancing whirl, it shows the direction 

 of the wind to be successively north, north-west, 

 west, and south-west, just as, according to what I 

 have been explaining to you, occurs in the forma- 

 tion of a whirlwind ; but in a direction opposite 

 to the course of turning, which in the common 

 changes of the wind is required by Dove's Law 

 of Rotation. 



You know what frightful force is exerted by 

 storms. We often hear of trees being dragged up 

 by the roots, of houses being shaken, of tiles and 

 chimney-pots torn off, and even of whole roofs 

 lifted from their places, and carried sometimes to a 

 distance. But the most violent storms are encoun- 

 tered by sailors, and by those who live near sea- 

 coasts, because over the sea the air-current meets 

 with the fewest hindrances to check its action 

 Indeed there are many instances, and espe- 

 cially in the tropics, of whole islands and large 

 tracts of coast, being laid waste by the fury of 

 hurricanes, and even of their being overwhelmed 

 by the sea, — thousands of houses having been 

 swept away or thrown down by the deluge of waves, 

 and numbers of human beings buried in their 

 ruins. 



