1839] 



Colonel Capper's Whirlwinds. 



3S3 



[We have been induced to make the three follo^ving extracts from 

 Colonel Reid's book, as a supplement to Mr. Taylor's paper ; the first> 

 from the local interest it possesses, as exhibiting the fact that the first 

 observation leading to the new theory was made by a distinguish ed 

 Madras Officer, from what passed before his eyes here on our own coast ; 

 the second, as describing a phenomenon calling for elucidation, which 

 may probably be rendered by some of our readers in the Straits, or by 

 those who voyage thither ; and the third, because it explains the useful 

 practical results, which, it is hoped, may spring from the new theory. 



Colonel Reid seems not to have been aware of the able meteorolo- 

 gical observations made by Mr. Goldingham, late Astronomer of Ma^ 

 dras, published in the Appendix to the 3d vol. of the Transacti'ms of 

 the Royal Asiatic Society and republished in this Journal, No. 12, 

 p. 157.— Editor.] 



Colonel Capper's Whirlwinds. — The late Colonel James Capper's 

 opinion, that hurricanes are vast whirlwinds, was formed during twenty 

 years' observation and study of the subject, on the coast of Coromandel. 

 In the preface to his work, published in 1801, he says, that when he 

 first attempted an investigation into the winds in India he had great 

 doubts of success, from the number and variety of them : but as he pro- 

 ceeded, he found that there were many words to express the same thing, 

 and that the hurricane, the typhoon, and the tornado, were but English, 

 Greek, or Persian, and Italian or Spanish names, for a whirlwind. 



In classing the winds, he observes, " the tempest is, both in cause 

 and etfect, the same as the hurricane or whirlwind ; and that the storm, 

 or what the Englishman calls a hard gale, is likew^ise nearly the same." 

 He aL^o states, that it is a long standing error that hurricanes in India 

 occur only at the changes of the monsoons ; and that Dr. Halley must 

 have been misinformed on that subject. 



There is this difference in the observations of Colonel Capper and Mr. 

 Redfield, that the former seemed of opinion that all whirlwinds are local 

 and temporary, whilst Mr. Redfield has clearly shown that they are pro- 

 gressive. It is not improbable, however, that some storms are local, 

 and end nearly at the same place where they began. 



The accounts of those storms, quoted by Colonel Capper, extracted 

 from Orme's History, all occurred on the coast of Coromandel : but the 

 reports given of the winds, though they show that these hurricanes were 

 whirlwinds, are not sufficiently detailed to enable us to determine their 

 tracks, and from what directions (if they were not local) they came. 



