THE HUEKICANE^ THE TYPHOON, AND THE TOENADO. 17 
nortli to west.* After a while the central axis arrives, and then 
there is a dead calm, which lasts for a short time — perhaps an 
hour. The wind then rises again, commencing almost instan- 
taneously with a hurricane from the opposite quarter to that 
from which it had last blown. When the observer is at sea we 
find it described in such words as these : “ The sea tremendous 
from the force of the wind ; no tops to the waves, being dis- 
persed in one sheet of white foam ; the decks tenanted by many 
sea-birds in an exhausted state, seeking shelter in the vessel ; im- 
possible to discern even during the day anything at fifty yards 
distance ; the wind representing numberless voices elevated to 
the shrillest tones of screaming ” (Log of the Eawlins, Captain 
Macqueen, 20th August, 1837). On shore the case is somewhat 
different. Electrical phenomena and magnetic disturbances, and 
sometimes earthquakes, complicate the horrors, and the destruc- 
tion, if not greater, is more seen and more easily described. In the 
account of the Barbadoes hurricane of 1831 we read, that ‘^On 
the morning of the 10th x\ugust the sun rose without a cloud ; 
at 10 A.M. a breeze that had been blowing died away ; towards 
2 P.M. the heat became oppressive ; at 5 p.m. thick clouds ap- 
peared in the north, rain fell, and was succeeded by a sudden 
stillness and a dismal blackness all around except towards the 
zenith, where there was an obscure circle of imperfect light. Till 
10.30 P.M., however, there was no sign of change ; then lightning 
appeared in the north, and very unusual fiuctuations of the 
thermometer were observed. All this time the storm was only 
approaching. 
“ After midnight the continued flashing of the lightning was 
awfully grand, and a gale blew fiercely from the north and 
north-east, but at 1 A.M. on the 11th August the tempestuous 
rage of the wind increased as the storm suddenly shifted and 
burst from the north-west and intermediate points. The upper 
regions were illuminated by incessant lightning, but the quiver- 
ing sheet of blaze was surpassed in brilliancy by the darts of 
electric fire which exploded in every direction. At a little after 
2 A.M. the astounding roar of the hurricane cannot be described 
by language.! 
“ About 3 the wind abated and the lightning ceased for a 
few moments at a time, when the blackness in which the town 
was enveloped was inexpressibly awful. Fiery meteors were 
* It is well known that when the wind changes in the direction of the 
motion of the hands of a watch, north hy east to south, and so hy west to 
north, there is a probability of fine settled weather. The reverse motion 
indicates had weather, and is called by sailors the ‘^backing ” of the wind. 
t The commanding otficer of the 36th Regiment, who had sought protec- 
tion by getting under the arch of a lower window outside his house, did not 
hear the roof and upper story of the house fall, and only found it out by the 
dust caused by the fall. 
VOL. VII. — NO. XXVI. C 
