876 



Remarks upon Colonel Reid^s attempt 



[April 



Remark. — The maierhl of this book was observed to be in a rapidly 

 perishing condition ; and restoration by a copyist was necessary in order 

 to ascertain the value of the contents. This may be judged of frornwhat 

 goes before. My own estimate would be but moderate; though there 

 certaintly are dates, and names, that are of use in confirming or correct- 

 ing other written documents. The book itself will not long continue 

 legible ; but the restored copy can be referred to, should occasion so re- 

 quire. 



(To ha continued.) 



VIIL — RemarJcs upon Colonel Reid's Attemft to develop the Law of 

 Storms.'*^ —By T. G. Taylor, Esq. Astronomer to the Honourable 

 East India Company. 



The author commences by stating, that his attention was first directed 

 to study the subject of storms, when employed at Barbadoes in rebuilding 

 the Government offices which had been blown down in the hurricane of 

 1831 ; when " 1477 persons lost their lives in the short space of seven 

 hours." Pursuing the subject, Col. Reid has collected from various 

 sources, a large connected mass of information ; from which it would ap- 

 pear — that the character and disposition of the larger gales of wind, or 

 hurricanes, are not of that casual order that they have generally been 

 supposed to be. 



We may mention, that Col. Reid has not exactly proposed a new- 

 theory, but in the end, has rather instituted an inquiiy into — how far the 

 whole of the facts relative to hurricanes (derived principally from the 

 logs of different ships) may be explained hy a xIiqqxv. 



Col. Capper, as far back as 1801, had mentionedin his history of storms 

 upon the Coromandel Coast, that ** it would not, perhaps, be a matter 

 of great difficulty, to ascertain the situation of a ship in a whirlwind, by 

 observing the strength and changes of the wind. If the changes are sud- 

 den, and the wind violent, in all probability the ship must be near the 

 centre of the vortex of the whirlwind; whereas if the wind blow^s a 

 great length of time from the same point, and the changes are gradual, it 



* An Attempt to develop the Law of Storms hy means of facts, arranged according to place 

 and time ; and hence to point out a cause for the Variable Wiiuls, v:ith the view to practical 

 use in ^Tavigation. Illustrated hy charts and loood cuts .—By Lieutenant - Colonel Reid, c. b. 

 (of the Royal Engineers j, London, 1838. 



