JANUARY 18, 1884.] 
capacities, and the stimulated energies of our 
text-book makers, to keep our place in the 
struggle. But grant the truth of the sad pre- 
sages of those who see the deluge in free trade, 
can we afford either the principle or the effects 
of levying a poll-tax on education? 
WHIRLWINDS, CYCLONES, AND TOR- 
NADOES.1—VIII. 
Tue barometer was falling more and more 
_ rapidly, and the wind blowing with increased 
violence from the north, in the example that 
was described. Then, if a transparent storm- 
card, drawn to proper scale after the pattern 
of fig. 9, be placed on the chart so that its 
strong north wind shall pass the position of 
the vessel, it will give the best indication of the 
general form of the hurricane; and a course 
may be laid by which the dangerous centre 
will be avoided. In this case, the safest 
course will be to run southward, or a point or 
two west of south, till the barometer begins 
to rise ; and then, if desired, a more easterly 
course may be followed. Even if the vessel be 
on its way to a European port, this will be its 
safest method of avoiding the storm; for, in 
attempting to beat against the wind and leave 
the storm to the south, there is too much risk 
that its increasing strength will prevent the 
vessel making sufficient headway to escape 
being caught in the central whirl: it would be 
better to sail around the southern side of the 
storm, and, after the centre had passed on 
the west, then shape a north-easterly course 
with the wind on the starboard beam. Some- 
times it has happened from ignorance of such 
sailing-rules as these, or from inability, even 
with their aid, to escape from the sudden vio- 
lence of a storm, that a vessel finds itself on 
the storm-track at the time of the passage of 
the centre; and there is then observed the 
peculiar and dreadful calm within the whirl,.to 
which sailors have given the name of ‘ the eye 
of the storm.’ Let us suppose, in the example 
given above, that the vessel endeavored to force 
its way against the increasing north wind, and, 
failing in this, remained on the path of the 
storm till the centre advanced on it. During 
its approach there will be no very marked 
change in the direction of the wind; but its 
force increases even beyond what seems its 
greatest possible strength, and goes on increas- 
ing, blowing in tremendous and terrible gusts, 
till the vessel is stripped of its canvas, and the 
yards and masts are cracked and broken away, 
1 Continued from No. 48. 
SCIENCE. 63 
and the hull lies helpless and unmanageable. 
Rain falls in driving torrents, and the sea rolls 
in great broken waves. ‘The roaring of the 
winds rises to a screaming pitch; and when 
at its most fearful strength, it suddenly dies 
away. In five minutes, perhaps even less, 
the air is quiet ; and only the heavy sea, and the 
commotion of the clouds, and a distant fading 
sound of the retreating wind, tell of the yvio- 
lence that has passed by. ‘The vessel is in a 
cushion of quiet air left under the core of the 
storm. ‘There is generally but a short time 
given to suffer the suspense of this unnatural 
quiet. In half an hour or an hour, according to 
the size and rate of motion of the storm, the 
centre passes away, and the opposite side of 
the whirl suddenly falls on the unhappy wreck, 
coming again with all the roar and fury that 
was felt before, but now blowing in the oppo- 
site direction, —a terrific hurricane from the 
south, chopping the waves into the dreaded 
cross-sea, where the water rises in pyramids 
instead of in linear crests, and changes its 
form so rapidly and with such broken rhythm as 
to strain great leaks in the worn-out hull, and 
leave it to founder in clearing weather, while 
the storm goes on in its destructive path. 
There is yet much to be learned concerning 
the curves followed by the winds in these 
storms. The diagrams, as described above, are 
based on observation and theory, but must be 
regarded only as provisional until proved by 
the average of many more observations than 
have yet been made. Rules for various cases 
may be easily devised on the plan above de- 
scribed, but they are not infallible: there is 
still much to be done in perfecting them. Only 
one additional point need be mentioned: care 
is needed to avoid sailing after and overtaking 
a slow-moving storm, and so falling into its 
power. ‘This would seldom happen in our lati- 
tude, but might well occur in the Indian Ocean, 
where some storms have been found to rest 
almost stationary over one district of the sea 
for more than a day. A case is reported 
where a vessel thus fell into the dangerous 
whirl, and could not escape, but was carried 
round and round the centre, while scudding 
under bare poles, till it made five complete 
revolutions before the storm left it behind. 
There remains to be described the storm- 
flood produced when a storm runs upon a low 
shore, as often happens at the head of the Bay 
of Bengal. The cyclone advances with grow- 
ing strength till it reaches the flat delta of the 
great Indian rivers. It finds the land here 
perfectly level, and so little raised above the 
water that its cultivated surface has to be pro- 
