16 



Hon. Ralph Abercromby. Relation between 



but changes during the course of the same cyclone. On the whole, 

 the centre seems to have a tendency to lie towards the front of the 

 typhoon. 



There seems to be very little tendency for cyclones to form 

 secondaries in these latitudes, and therein they differ greatly from 

 depressions in the Atlantic. 



On the other hand, we find the same tendency for two typhoons to 

 follow one another closely, and along the same path, which is such a 

 characteristic feature of extra- tropical cyclones. For instance, the 

 typhoon of October 20, which will be illustrated presently, had scarcely 

 died out on the 22nd to the south of Hainan, before a new cyclone 

 formed on the 23rd to the south of Panay — a little south of Manila — 

 which also died out near Hainan, on the 27th. Then by November 

 3rd, another typhoon formed to the east of the Philippines, and 

 traversed a line almost coincident with the path of the first cyclone. 



The intensity of typhoons in the China Seas appears to be about the 

 same as the October cyclones in the Bay of Bengal, but less than that 

 of the hurricanes of Mauritius and of the West Indies. 



In the Philippines, as elsewhere in the tropics, a rise of the 

 barometer very frequently precedes a typhoon ; and much has been 

 written about the relation of this high pressure area to the cyclone 

 itself. No synoptic charts which have yet been constructed in the 

 tropics are sufficiently detailed to enable us to say much on the 

 subject; but so far as they go, the changes, or re-adjustment of 

 pressure surrounding such an abnormal occurrence as a tropical 

 hurricane, are precisely analogous to the changes which precede a 

 temperate cyclone. 



The weather in this high-pressure area is reported as beautifully 

 fine, often with great visibility ; and the formation of feathery cirrus 

 on the blue sky is one of the first and most certain forerunners of a 

 typhoon. This is exactly analogous to the " wedges " of high pressure, 

 and very fine weather, which we find in front of many European 

 cyclones. 



But there is one phenomenon connected with the outskirts of a 

 typhoon that has been observed by Faura, and which is so important 

 and interesting that it may be described here. In the periphery of the 

 cyclone, that is to say in the winds blowing two or three days before 

 the storm from N. and N.W., the smoke of the chronically active 

 volcano of Abayon, in the island of Albay, descends. During the 

 typhoon no observations have been possible, owing to the low-lying 

 nimbus ; but when this breaks up, after the passage of the hurricane, 

 the smoke is rising. 



Fig. 8a represents the appearance of the smoke before, fig. 86 

 that after a typhoon, as shown in some sketches belonging to Padre 

 Faura. 



