HURRICANES IN THE BAY OF NORTH AMERICA. 179 
less, like a mark to be shot at, probably the only object on 
the surface of the ocean for miles and miles. We stood hour 
after hour, until our watch was out, and we were relieved at 
four o’clock. During all this time hardly a word was spoken; 
no bells were struck, and the wheel was silently relieved. 
The rain fell at intervals in heavy showers, and we stood 
drenched through and blinded by the flashes, which broke 
the Egyptian darkness with a brightness that seemed almost 
malignant; while the thunder rolled in peals, the concussion 
of which appeared to shake the very ocean. A ship is not 
often injured by lightning, for the electricity is separated by 
the great number of points she presents and the quantity of 
iron which she has scattered in various parts. The electric 
fluid ran over our anchors, topsail sheets and ties; yet no 
harm was done to us. We went below at four o’clock, leav¬ 
ing things in the same state. It is not easy to sleep when 
the very next flash may tear the ship in two, or set her on 
fire; or where the deathlike calm may be broken by the blast 
of a hurricane, taking the masts out of the ship. But a man 
is no sailor if he cannot sleep when he turns-in, and turn out 
when he’s called. And when, at seven bells, the customary 
‘All the larboard watch, ahoy! ’ brought us bn deck, it was 
a fine, clear, sunny morning, the ship going leisurely along, 
with a soft breeze and all sail set.” 
As a good, brief, scientific statement of the most widely 
accepted theory regarding the formation of these storms, 
Abbe’s review of Blanford’s results in the Bay of Bengal is 
of interest: “Cyclones are not produced between parallel 
currents flowing in opposite directions. A calm state of the 
atmosphere, or one in which the winds, are light and vari¬ 
able over the open sea, is a favorable condition, and a second 
condition is a high or moderately high temperature,” result¬ 
ing “ in the production and ascent of a large quantity of 
vapor, which will be condensed with the liberation of its latent 
heat over the place of its production. If this state of things 
last for some days, the slowly inflowing winds acquire by the 
influence of the motion of the earth a whirl, in consequence 
