Feb. 14, 1889* j 



WEST INDIAN HURRICANES AND THE MARCH 

 BLIZZARD. 



ON Feb. 9 a inost interesting lecture was delivered by Ensign 

 Everett Hayden, U.S.N., in charge of the Division of Marine 

 Meteorology of the U. S. Hydrographic Office, before the Seawan- 

 haka Corinthian Y. C, the subject being "West Indian Hurri- 

 canes and the March Blizzard." The lecture was very fully 

 fflUBtratecl by a series of lantern slides prepared from Mr. Hay- 

 den's diagrams and exhibited by Mr. Wm. T. Buckley, a member 

 of the club. After the lecture Mi-. Buckley also gave an exhibi- 

 tion of a large number of yachtiug views, includiug all the lead- 

 ing yachts. Tin ough the kindness of Mi-. Hay den we are enabled 

 to give the following abstract of his lecture, its length being too 

 great to allow its publication in full: 



As a lecture, to be delivered at a future time, will be devoted 

 to the 'general subject of wiuds and storms, a very much more 

 comprehensive one than that now under consideration, it is to be 

 hoped that aaotnewhat detailed description of the terrific trop- 

 ical cyclones that devastate the West Indies and advance upon 

 our Gulf and Atlantic seaboard will be a fitting introduction to a 

 broad general outline of the meteorology of the globe, to which 

 the present lecture is merely preliminary. Moreover, it Was by 

 the study of these very storms that an American, Wm. B. Red- 

 fleld, won imperishable renown and the everlasting gratitude of 

 mankind by discoveries that have proved to be the very founda- 

 tion stone, of the great science of meteorology as it is known and 

 practically utilized to-day, at sea and on laud, in every ocean 

 and continent of the globe, to which the arts and sciences of 

 civilization have access. 



The first three slides, mod ideations of the familiar pilot charts 

 of the No » th Atlantic, will serve to make clear the general dis- 

 tribution of barometric pressure and tha circulation of the winds 

 over the entire basin of ihe North Atlantic and the adjacent con- 

 tinents during winter and summer, together with the general 

 paths followed by storms, and the regions where they are most 

 prevalent and persistent. Special attention is called to the great 

 persistent anti-cyclone, or area of high barometer, in mid-ocean 

 to the southwest of the Azores, about wnich the general atmos- 

 pheric circulation is in a direction with the hands of a watch, 

 giving rise, below, to the well-known steady northeast trades, 

 and above, or to the northward, to the prevailing westerly winds 

 along the transatlantic steamship routes — the "brave west winds" 

 of the north temperate zone. Another marked feature is the 

 permanent area of low barometer about Iceland, a great station- 

 ary cyclone about which the circulation of the wind is against 

 the hands of a watch. To the southward, about the equator, lies 

 w hat Maury has called the meteorological equator, the region of 

 equatorial rains and calms at the meeting of the southeast and 

 northeast trades, where the warm, steady trade winds, laden 

 with moisture from tneir long tra vel over tropic seas, nsc and 

 precipitate their moisture, returning pole wards as an upper cur- 

 rent to descend again to the surface and be felt as coot, dry, anti- 

 cyclonic winds. The position of this great anti-evclone in mid- 

 Atlantic is the key to the meteorology of half the civilized world; 

 the diagrams indicate its normal or average position, and illus- 

 trate how it follows that great monarch of climate, the sun, in 

 his changes of declination, moving northward in summer and 

 Southward m winter. Rut they do not illustrate the abnormal 

 variations in its position, due to, we know not what, though we 

 do know that the storms of America and Europe are guided by 

 it, and the next great step in advance will be to turn this know- 

 ledge to practical account in our forecast of weather on the 

 North Atlantic, and along its eastern and western shores. 



In addition, then, to those permanent areas of high and low 

 barometers, eddies or atmospheric whirls move along pretty well 

 defined tracks, as indicated on the diagram; cyclones, or "lows" 

 (in ordinary parlance, storms) sucking the' air spirally inward 

 and whirling it aloft, its moisture condensing into heavy clouds, 

 with rain or snow; anti-cyclones, or "highs," roturning the cool 

 dry air to the surface iu outward blowing spirals, with cool dry 

 weather and high barometer. The two storm tracks of spiral 

 interest in this connection are: first, the Gre.-u Lake storm track, 

 from west t o cast over t lie G rcat Lakes and down the St. Lawrence 

 valley; and, secondly, the West Indian hurricane track, westward 

 in the tropics, then northward into the temperate zone and east- 

 ward again in higher latitudes. Cyclonic eddies tend to move 

 toward and unite with the permanent "low" near Ireland; anti- 

 cyclonic, with the permanent anti-cyclone in mid-ocean. Upon 

 these general laws, together with local modifications due to topo- 

 gra phie relief ashore and the influence of the great ocean currents 

 at sea, Icing all the weather changes of the North Atlantic basin. 



After this genet al view the lecturer said that he proposed to 

 confine his attention to the western portion of the ocean, that 

 portion whieh an einiuent American scientist has well called the 

 "Bay of North America." This term embraces all of the Atlantic 

 "West of the 50ih meridian, from Newfoundland to the mouths of 

 the Amazon, including the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. 

 He did not propose, he said, to leave to a postscript what he him- 

 self regarded as by far the most important point that any 

 thorough study of West Indian hurricanes and the March bliz- 

 zard could possibly emphasize, namely, the tremendous commer- 

 cial importance of this gieat Bay of North America. The area 

 from the 50th to the lOOrh meridian west of Greenwich, and from 

 the equator to the 50th parallel of north latitude, is destined to 

 become, in the near future, the theater of the greatest political 

 and commercial activity that the world has ever seen. Meteoro- 

 logically speaking, it is a unit, from the slopes of the Rockies and 

 the Cordilleras of the Isthmus to mid-ocean, and from the shores 

 of the Hudson Bay to Venezuela. Abereromby, the distinguished 

 Bnglisb meteorologist, has well said that tho weather predictor 

 "cannot explain the weather on any day without casting his eyes 

 over the whole northern hemisphere and arouDd the little hills 

 and valleys which bound h s own horizon." Urging his hearers to 

 bear this m mind during his snhseeiuent remarks, and promising 

 to refer to the subject again, he went on to describe Heclfielcl's 

 great discoveries, the methods by which his results were obtained, 

 and their immediate and practical effect in advancing meteoro- 

 logical knowledge and lessening the dangers of ocean storms. 



Although it is now generally recognized that Redfield had 

 reached his fundamental conclusions regarding the rotary char- 

 acter of storms, together with amotion of the whole system along 

 a definite track, as early as 1831, yet his first paper did not appear 

 in print till 1831, aud was even then unaccompanied by the dia- 

 grams so necessary in the then state of knowledge, or rather 

 ignoiance. of the subject. Nevertheless, most of his earliest 

 papers Were accompanied by such full statements of methods and 

 facts that any one could plot the observations on a chart and thus 

 verify his conclusions for himself. To illustrate his method, 

 therefore, Mr. Iiaydeu selected one of his later diagrams, entitled 

 "Route ol the Hurricane October 4-7, 1841," and projected it upon 

 the screen. Upon this chart Redfield had charted by means of 

 arrows, plotted each one at its proper geographic position, obser- 

 vations of wind direction selected for certain fixed times from a 

 large number of reports, extracts from ship's logs, etc., collected 

 with infinite perseverance and care from as many sources as 

 were accessible. Thus three sets of concentric circles are seen at 

 a glance to represent the general size and character of the storm 

 at noon of the 5th, 6th aud 7th of October respec tively. Moreover, 

 the tracks of certain vessols are plotted, in order that the experi- 

 ence of each may be considered with reference to the circulation 

 of the wind about the storm center and the gradual movement of 

 the whole system along:! curved track. Thus we have here on 

 Rediitld's chart as clearly and graphically as could be indicated 

 from the data at his command by the most able meteorologists 

 to-day. the whole theory and practice of all our modern synchron- 

 ous daily weather maps upon which predictions and forecasts are 

 based and spread abroad by telegraph and newspapers to form 

 part and parcel of the aaily life of millions of men in every land. 

 Oct, 5, a cyclone central off the northern coast of Cuba, easterly 

 gales in Florida, northerly in western Cuba, westerly in Jamaica, 

 southerly in eastern Cuba. Oct. 6, cyclone central 300 miles south- 

 east from Hatteras, general circulation of wind about the same as 

 before (agaiuet the hands of a watch), northeasterly gales from 

 Sandy Hook to Hatteras, northwesterly gales from Hatteras to 

 Cape Romaine, size of storm somewhat greater. October 7, storm 

 central about 150 miles southeast from Halifax, increasing south- 

 easterly gales on the Grand Banks, strong nor' wester between 

 Cape Sable and Nantucket, storm area enlarging and intensity 

 diminishing. How marvclously clear. What a perfect grasp of 

 facts and what a grand practical generalization from facts to 

 principles. It would, indeed, have been small credit to the age in 

 which he lived had such self-evident truths failed to find ready 

 acceptance and prompt appreciation. 



The terrific violence of this hurricane was sufficiently indicated 

 by the havoc it caused in the landlocked harbor of Havana, a port 

 absolutely unrivaled for the security of its anchorage; in this 

 ten hours' tragedy seventy-two ships foundered at their anchors- 

 capsized, dismasted, driven ashore, annihilated by the furvof the 

 hurricane. This is a -splendid laudlocked harbor* and in spite of 

 all that human strength and skill could do aboard, the various ves- 

 sels of a great fleet, lighting under every flag and a lied against a 

 leommon foe, were wrecked and shattered by the hurricane. 

 Attention was called to a coincidence of marked importance be- 

 tween the date (1844) of this great storrn, so fully and graphically 

 explained by Redfield, and the very year that witnessed the com- 

 pletion and assured practical success of Professor Morse's tele- 



Forest and stream. 



graph line between Washington and Bal timore. Right here we 

 have the two great practical discoveries upon which all modern 

 telegraphic weather forecasts depend, the synchronous observa- 

 tions and records and the electric telegraph which transmits them. 



Without attempting to follow this gigantic whirlwind in its 

 destructive path toward Hatteras aud the Grand Banks, the 

 speaker paused a moment to refer to Redfield himself, and read 

 an extract from a very interesting letter from Rear- Admiral 

 Thornton A. Jenkins, U.S. N. .at that time a passed midshipman), 

 an officer whose distinguished record at home and abroad, in 

 peace and in war, is well known to every student of American 

 naval history. Admiral Jenkins describes Redfield as a quiet 

 retiring and reticent man, but always eloquent and patient in 

 explaining the great truths of his new and— in the then ignor- 

 ance of the subject— startling theories. It seems almost incredi- 

 ble that at that time the great majority of naval officers, even, 

 utterly refused to believe in or even listen to any theories regard- 

 ing storms at sea or on land, and regarrled a barometer as more 

 or less of a nuisance. As late as 1350, Admiral Jenkins 

 naval officer, who afterward became one of the most distinguished 

 heroes of the war, asked him if he put any faith in "that thing." 

 "Why, when I was in the Gulf and at Vera Cruz," said he, "that 

 d d thing nearly set me crazy r ." 



The next diagram shown upon the screen was one of Iledfield's 

 track charts, with the path of various hurricanes, illustrating as 

 graphically as anything could well do the general limits of ' the 

 great area already defined as tho Bay of North America, the 

 tracks alone which these terrific cyclonic storms move in their 

 majestic parabolic orbits from the tropics into the temperate 

 zone, and the essential unity of the entire area, so far as any 

 broad and rational scheme of telegraphic weather forcasts is 

 concerned. This latter fact, however, was referred to and em- 

 phasized still inore strongly later on, in connection with a full 

 description of the physical and meteorological features of the Bay 

 of North America, and the existing and proposed telegraph line's 

 and cables, so it need not be referred to further here. Attention 

 was called to the fact that while some of these storms pursued a 

 course about west by north across the Oarriboan Sea and Gulf of 

 Mexico, reaching tho coast of Texas before recurving, others re- 

 curve in various latitudes, the greater number about the 30th 

 parallel, following a. path very nearly coincident with the course 

 of the 01111 Stream, and approximately parallel to our Atlantic 

 coast line. Again, a careful study of the dates of even the com- 

 paratively few storm tracks plotted on this chart brings out the 

 fast that the August, hurricanes recurve well to the northward, 

 about the 30th or 33d parallel, while those of October recurve in 

 about tho latitude of Cuba. These important general laws, de- 

 pendent upon the change of the suits declination, have been 

 strongly confirmed by subsequent investigation, and were dis- 

 cussed in greater detail later in the evening. One other feature 

 of this chart that was referred to particularly was the notable 

 irregularity in the track of the hurricane of August, 1887. which, 

 after having already commenced to recurve in the usual manner 

 was unexpectedly deflected to the westward, striking the coast 

 of Georgia at Darien. This circumstance the audience was re- 

 quested to bear in mind in connection with similar deflections of 

 certain recent hurricanes, when the principles governing such de- 

 flections would be fully explained. 



The next diagram was a copy of the Pilot Chart of the North 

 Atlantic Ocean for August, 1888, on which were plotted the tra cks 

 of all the August hurrieaues on record, strikingly confirming the 

 fact brought out by Red field's chart, that these tracks are remark- 

 ahly uniform, both in their general course and in the latitude 

 where they recurve. 



Diagrams from Col. Reid's well-known hook on storms served 

 to illustrate the way in which able practical and scientific men 

 took up Red field's ideas and propagated bis new and important 

 theories among navigators, for their guidance at sea in avoiding 

 altogether or maneuvering successfully in ocean storms. Col. 

 Re.id was an officer of the Royal Engineers of Great Britain, and 

 his attention was first directed to this subject from having been 

 employed at Barbadoes in re-establishing the Government build- 

 ings blown down in the hurricane of 1831, when 1,447 persons lost 

 their lives in the short space of seven hours, in that little island 

 alone; a striking commentary, in itself, of the destructive char- 

 acter of these, gigantic tornado-like whirlwinds. Tile diagrams 

 were especially graphic in clearly defining the bread belt or swath 

 described by a hurricane in its outward progress, the storm 

 tracks previously referred to constituting merely the axial line 

 of the belt. The first was a hurricane of August, 1S37, and a 

 graphic account was quoted, with illustrations, of a thrilling expe- 

 rience of the ship Calypso, typical of hundreds of similar cases in 

 hurrieaues in the West Iudies and off our own coast in the past, 

 and repeated every year almost before our verv eves. The 

 Calypso was in about lat. 37° N„ long. 75° W., when" a rolling 

 swell, freshening northeasterly squalls, and other signs of a hur- 

 ricane, would have warned a captain posted in the law of storms 

 to square away and make the best of his way to an anchorage at 

 Nassau or run around along the southern edge of the approach- 

 ing cyclone. But this was before sailors knew anything about 

 circular storms, aud before, the Hydrographic Office had spread 

 broadcast over the world the marvelous results obtained by using 

 oil to prevent heavy seas from breaking on board. The' ship's 

 decks were swept by the. seas, her close-reefed topsail blown from 

 its holt ropes, hatches stove in, the vessel thrown on her beam 

 ends, with yard arms in the water. With her crew of 15 men 

 clinging to the weather rigging, mastheads in the water, a furi- 

 ous hurricane dashing the waves over them iu sheets of foam, 

 and the vessel sinking beneath their feet, it seems hard to believe 

 that any epitaph but "missing— lost at sea" would ever have- been 

 inscribed against their names. But truth is always strange, 

 stranger than fiction. Upon cutting away the lanyards of the 

 lower rigging the masts went by the board and the vessel slowly 

 righted. As the gale moderated, jury masts and sails wore rigged, 

 and in two weeks time, after the hardships and suffering incident 

 to such a condition, the gallant ship (what was left of her) came 

 to anchor in the haroor of SmithviRc, North Carolina. 



Another of Reid's diagrams gave the paths of two of the 

 memorable hurricanes of October, 1780, as indicated by extiaots 

 from the logs of the many British frigates cruising in those 

 waters at that time. The one that destroyed the town of Savanna 

 la Mar, Jamaica, was particularly severe, and in the vicinity of 

 that island four frigates were lost, three of them with all' on 

 board. The Phcenix, wrecked on the south coast of Cuba, had a 

 terrific experience, and the long account of it by Lieut. Archer, 

 R. N., published in Reid's book, should be read in full, as no 

 quotations could do it justice. One's feelings relative to the loss 

 of this fine frigate, however, are somewhat tempered b\ the cool 

 way in which Lieut. Archer speaks of having chased a Yankee 

 man-of-war a short time previously, which, "unfortunately," 

 escaped in the darkness! 



Two years later (1783) occurred one of the greatest naval disas- 

 ters on record, and the lecturer said that— after referring to it 

 very briefly in order to emphasize the vast importance to naviga- 

 tors of a knowledge of the law of storms, rather tfian with any 

 desire to appall th - audience with statistics— he would be obliged 

 to omit all further reference to the accumulated records of the 

 succeeding hundred years and devote to the immediate present 

 what little time remained. The disaster referred to he quoted 

 from Piddington'3 "Sailor's Horn Book," another of those classic 

 manuals that have translated and made intelligible to rough 

 practical men the great and important truths of puro science, 

 whose lofty reasoning and diction would in themselves be as un- 

 intelligible as so much Sanscrit. Rodney's fleet and prizes, to- 

 gether with an immense convoy of merchantmen, in all 03 vessels, 

 were overtaken by a hurricane off the Grand Banks in Septem- 

 ber, 1783; all preparations for had weather were made and the 

 fleet Jiove to, but on the wrong tack. Frigates, prizes and convoy 

 were dismasted, sunk, scattered, abandoned; every man-of-war 

 but one foundered, and upward of 3,000 lives were lost. Hove to 

 on the wrong taek. What an epitaph, and what a lesson for 

 posterity! Truly, "peace hath her victories no less renowned 

 than war," and if Redfield has still no monument erected in his 

 honor, it must be because, he needs none. 



Mr. Hayden then explained by means of diagrams prepared in 

 his division and published by the Hydrographic Office, the circu- 

 lation of the wind in a tropical cyclone, northern hemisphere, 

 upon a knowledge of which the proper handling of a vessel de- 

 pends. As a goou illustration the experience of the U. S. steamer 

 Juniata was cited. This vessel is now in Now York Harbor, 

 having recently returned from China, where last September she 

 encountered a severe typhoon during her voyage from Hong 

 Kong to Singapore. The diagrams illustrated graphically the 

 structure of those great whirl winds, so far as concerns the navi- 

 gator, showing that while in the outer regions of the storm the 

 wind blows spirally inward, in the central regions it rushes furi- 

 ously around a calm spot called the eye of the storm, where there 

 is a fearful pyramidal sea, the waves rising aud falling in moun- 

 tainous and irregular masses, oftentimes with a clear sky and 

 bright sunlight to enhance the strange and unnatural calm in 

 the midst of a ring where the wind is blowing a hurricane, the sea 

 lashed into driving foam and the sky of inky blackness. The 

 diagram indicated how aboard a vessel to the right of a storm 

 track, the wind shifts to the right (veers), and to the left it shifts 

 to the left (backs). Directly iu front of an advancing storm the 

 wind remains steady in direction, but increases rapidly in force, 

 with light scud and passing squalls. By means of these and many 



_ 7 



other characteristic indications the navigator can ascertain with 

 considerable accuracy the bearing of thefltorm center -in d the 

 approximate track and velocity of the cyclone. H« is thus 

 euabled to take sucli action as may be best adapted, con- 

 sidering the particular circumstances of the case, to 

 avoid the most dangerous region of the storm, and as 

 a secondary consideration take advantage of such winds 

 as may help him on his course. One of the. most import- 

 ant circumstances tho practical navigator has to consider 

 in dealing with a hurricane is the lay of "the bind, and of course 

 the proximity of a dangerous coast must often prevent, him from 

 taking such action a.s would be most advantageous if there were 

 plenty of sea room. In the case of the Juniata, Commander Wise 

 stood away to the southward to avoid the typhoon aud at thr 

 time make headway on his course to Singapore, and finally, rat her 

 than cross the entrance to the Gulf of Tonquin, where the sea 

 would be very heavy, bove-to in the Ice of Hainan Island, and 

 rode out the storm under a full head of steam. The fore storm- 

 staysail, set to steady 1 he vessel, was carried away, aud four boats 

 were torn from their davits. Hatches battened down, vessel 

 shipped sea after sea till oil was used in bags towed from, the 

 weather bow. Weather thick and misty, with continuous heavy 

 rain. The critical examination arid analysis of the act ion taken 

 by steam and sailing vessels encountering such storms under the 

 many and constantly varying conditions that occur in actual 

 practice, the rules that govern such action and the results that 

 follow it, furnish the very best and, indeed, only method of im- 

 pressing upon masters of vessels the vital importance of this 

 branch of their profession. Practical men want practical infor- 

 mation, with concrete, definite examples drawn from real life, 

 with details familiar to their own individual experiences. The 

 lecturer was willing, he said, to submit this proposition to his 

 audience, and to ask if such instances, taken from the records of 

 the Hydrographic Office, with names, dates, positions and all de- 

 tails given, were not infinitely more effective in impressing such 

 facts upon the mind than some ideal imaginary situation gotten 

 up to suit some particular lino of argument, and, perhaps, never 

 likely to occur in actual practice. 



Now the records of the Hydrographic Office contain hundreds 

 —he might almost any thousands— of such reports, more complete, 

 probably, than similar records in any other office in the world, 

 and ho regarded it as worthy of an earnest, effort on the part of 

 allconcerned to see that means were provided for their publication 

 and circulation among the hundreds of voluntary observers who 

 have willingly contributed their time and services in taking and 

 recording their observations day after day, month after month, 

 and year after year aboard vessels in every oceau of the globe. 



To illustrate the special dangers of navigation in the West 

 Indies, the birthplace and natural habitat of these terrible 

 storms, a copy of one of the Hydrographic Office charts was pro- 

 jected upon the screen, and attention called to the intricate and 

 dangerous character of navigation in these wateis. Remember- 

 ing the circulation of the wind iu one of these cyclonic storms, it 

 will be readily seen that every hurricane that skirts the West 

 Indies and the Atlantic seaboard of the United Sla tes is sure to 

 put hundreds of vessels in danger of being driven on a lee shore, 

 and lost beyond all human power of deliverance. Just such 

 tracks were those, followed by the two hurricanes of August, 1887, 

 which were then exhibited, plotted from more complete and re- 

 liable data, by far, than have ever been collected in connection 

 with any hurricanes on record. The tracks of only a few of the 

 many vessels from which reports had been received were shown 

 upon the same chart, and served to give some idea, of the com- 

 pleteness of the data. Of these, the first originated off the coast 

 of Africa, about the Cape Ycrde Islands, Aug. 13, and moved at a 

 high rate of speed westward, across the Atlantic, recurving east 

 of Florida, striking ( 'ape Hatteras with furious energy on the 

 30th, carrying havoc among the gallant fishermen off the Grand 

 Banks on tie 33d, and passing to the northward of the British 

 Isles and coast of Norway on flic 39th and 30th— a track more than 

 7,000 miles in length. What a tremendous engine of destruction! 



"Let us," said the speaker, "watch its original progress. Im- 

 agine to yourself a hot, sultry August day iu the tropics, off the 

 Cape Verde Islands, at about the northern limit of the belt of 

 equatorial rains aud calms, where the northeast t rades have be- 

 come fitful and irregular. The uniformity of the trade sky is 

 disappearing, and the little masses of cumulus clouds that have 

 flecked the sky from zenith to horizon gather together here and 

 there, as if undecided what to do, and now and then rise in tall, 

 massive columns, that grow before the eye and mount higher and 

 higher, till one lazily wonders how high they will rise above then- 

 broad level bases before they reach some upper current that will 

 scatter their beautiful crests and spoil their snow-white, symme- 

 try. In the distance an occasional dark mass is seen, from* which 

 heavy rain is falling, with sometimes a broad flash of sheet light 

 ning. In one of the tall masses of cumulus, off to the westward, 

 taller and more majestic than its mates, a slow gyratory motion 

 can be detected, which, gathering strength, rapidly draws in the 

 warm air from below, saturated with moisture, and scuds it aloft 

 into cooler and cooler regions, to add rapidly to the growing and 

 darkening mass of clouds. A new feature catches the eye; "ions, 

 graceful, snow-white, feathery plumes reach out at the top of the' 

 mass, projected against the deep, clear azure skv. Beneath 

 them the sharp rounded, upper edges of the now dark and 

 threatening cumulus begin to grow misty and indistinct, and 

 the inner shafts of the radiating cirrus plumes are lost to 

 sight in this now misty veil. Gradually faint, and then share, 

 dark, horizontal lines appear against the cumulus, and rapidly 

 grow into stratus clouds, as though a line rain were falling anil 

 settling at the level. Below, the distant horizon is now obscured 

 by heavy rain. Off to the northeast some little trad ts wind clouds 

 are moving this way; watching them a moment, as thev rise 

 toward the zenith, some mysterious force over there to the west- 

 ward seems to attract them, and their paths curve that way. 

 What docs it mean, you say, and looking in that direction you see 

 more little patches of scud moving across from left to right, 

 and notice that a breeze is springing up from the cast, while "the 

 barometer is falling slightly and the whole great mass of clouds 

 is moving west ward. A hurricane has Intel its birth, a great eve-ionic 

 storm has started on its westward march toward St. Thomas, Hat- 

 teras, Cape Race and Norway. One of our western tornadoes is 

 to this monster as an electric light to the noonday sun, and all 

 the tornadoes in the records of the Signal Office, rolled into one 

 and added to it, would hardly add appreciably to its energy. 



Whirling along its ocean pathway at an average velocity of 

 nearly, twenty miles an hour It sends out a long rolling swell a 

 thousand miles in advance, and is heralded by long, high feathery- 

 plumes of cirrus clouds radiating far beyond the slowly thicken- 

 ing cirrus veil that casts its pale halo over sun and moon, and at 

 dawn the twilight envelops heaven and earth with an awful fiery 

 glare like the light of some great conflagration. Soon the massive 

 leaden-colored cloud bauk heaves in sight above the horizon, a 

 great mountain range— Ossa piled upon Pelion— and flying scud 

 lorms over head and drifts to leeward, not with the surface wind, 

 but at a marked angle to the right, moving with the upper cur- 

 rents of the great whirlwind. At intervals fine misty rain seem.-, 

 to grow out of the air and then vanishes agaiu, and the squalls 

 freshen, the barometer sinks lower and lower, heavy clouds eovtr 

 the whole horizon, and the low distant moan gradually changes 

 iuto the shrieks of a thousand demons wrenching at the stout 

 masts and spars, tearing the strong canvas into shreds and flut- 

 tering pennants, hurling timber and masonry into heaps of shape- 

 less ruins, driving wild breakers high up on land, and laughing to 

 Ecorn the feeble strength of man. Suddenly a pause. Silence. 

 Calm. The warm, bright sunshine of a summer day. A brief 

 glimpse of heaven. And then another seeming eternity of hell. 

 As is often the case, a second hurricane succeeded the first after 

 a few days' interval. foRo wing approximately the same track. 

 Time did not allow the speaker to go into any detailed description 

 of either one, although each would be well worthy of a volume. 



The lecturer then spoke briefly of his visit to Cuba during 

 September and October, 1888, under orders from the Secretary of 

 the Navy, issued at his own urgent application. These two 

 months constitute the latter half of the hurricane season, and 

 October is specially dreaded because of the. fact, already men- 

 tioned, that Oci ober hurricanes recurve in just the latitude of 

 the island, which they cross from south to north, retaining all the 

 furious intensity that marks their paths at sea. The very day 

 that he. sailed from New York the great September hurricane had 

 just swept across the island from east to west, and was expected 

 to recurve across the peninsula of Florida and reach the Gulf 

 Stream again off Hatteras. Diagrams were given to show the re. 

 markable deflection of this cyclone toward Vera Cruz, and the 

 track of another one that followed close after the first but re- 

 curved about as usual. Various diagrams and illustrations were 

 given in the effort to convey some idea of the summer climate iu 

 the city of Havana, the historic, picturesque old Spanish capital 

 of lovely Cuba, "la, Perla de las Antillas,'' and to describe some 

 of the leading results of the studies of Padre Vlfies, the eminent 

 Havana meteorologist whose scientific ability, indefatigable 

 energy, and unrivalled opportunities, have linked his name so in- 

 separably with all recent advances in our knowledge of these 

 storms. Indeed, the lecturer had himself suggested coining the 

 word " Yifiess," to express for our tropical storms what the word 

 "typhoon" does for those of China, in honor and recognition of 

 the distinguished services of his esteemed friend, the director of 

 the Meteorological Observatory of the "Colegio de Belen," 



