184 
HAYDEN. 
age, but it certainly has not as yet been announced. It is a 
striking fact that there is a marked absence of thunder and 
lightning in a tropic cyclone. The ordinary visible and 
audible manifestations of this great physical agent are almost 
wholly wanting in the inner whirls of a hurricane, although 
its pressure is indicated very decidedly in other ways. On 
a 'priori reasoning, at least, we must assign it some very 
important part in the phenomenon. 
Certain marked exceptions to the normal tracks of hurri¬ 
canes in the Bay of North America may next be referred to, 
and these I have illustrated by a chart upon which are 
plotted the tracks of two hurricanes of September, 1888, and 
two of September, 1889. Of the former, the first crossed 
Cuba from east to west, September 4th, and thence moved 
along a very abnormal track (about west by south) toward 
Vera Cruz; it was followed-at a distance of about 700 miles 
by a second hurricane, which recurved about as usual. This 
notable exception to the usual law called forth an important 
statement from Padre Vines, who attributed the deflection 
of the first hurricane to its repulsion by the second. The 
following extract from this statement may be quoted here: 
“At the impact of two cyclones the only currents that can 
and ought to produce a repellent action are the upper ones, 
which diverge from the center toward the circumference, and 
which are expelled with great velocity and to great distances 
in tropic cyclones. Consequently, when two meet, the upper 
currents of one flow out and strike the upper currents of the 
other directly. The lower currents, as they are convergent, 
tend rather to join the two cyclones in one. Furthermore, 
when two cyclones are brought into contact from a distance, 
the first meeting and first shock is among the upper cur¬ 
rents, which extend much farther outward than the super¬ 
ficial winds. I would say, then, that the contact of the upper 
currents of the two cyclones could and ought to be proven, 
and that in fact the struggle was proven and established. 
We have, therefore, the exceptional case of a storm whose 
path, instead of curving toward the north, as usual, curved 
