HURRICANES IN THE BAY OF NORTH AMERICA. 175 
the tracks of all the cyclones on record for August, Septem¬ 
ber, and October, respectively, likely to indicate to the navi¬ 
gator the paths that hurricanes usually follow during these 
three months—the especially dangerous hurricane months 
in the Bay of North America. Upon looking at these three 
charts it will readily be seen that the motion of translation of 
such storm systems is westward in the tropics, then north¬ 
ward into the temperate zone, and finally northeastward; 
it will be noticed, also, that the tracks are most numerous 
off our coast, in the Gulf Stream region. These storm tracks, 
although valuable as indicating in a general way the region 
where tropic cyclones are most liable to be encountered 
and the direction of their tracks, are nevertheless far from 
satisfactory. Although compiled from all available data, 
we have had hardly time enough to go into the subject with 
the thoroughness that it deserves, in order to sift out the 
tracks that represent the movements of cyclones unaccom¬ 
panied by winds of any noteworthy violence, to omit every¬ 
thing founded too largely on guess-work, and to verify and 
correct the tracks of genuine hurricanes. As they stand, we 
cannot base upon them anything but the weakest and vaguest 
generalities. 
A hurricane is an event of enormous importance in the 
history of atmospheric physics; to use a metaphor from 
human history, it is a great battle, upon which the fate of 
nations—of civilization itself—depends, as compared to the 
desultory and meaningless skirmishes' that are so liable to 
confuse and mislead the historian. The simplicity and 
breadth of marine meteorology, due to the greater extent 
and uniformity of the leading meteorologic conditions at sea 
than on land, would seem to make its study of the very 
greatest value in arriving at any correct ideas regarding the 
general laws, of atmospheric circulation, and to repay well 
the increased difficulty in collecting and collating data. 
In a general way, then, these tracks illustrate the fact that 
hurricanes, originating as great whirlwinds in the tropics, 
move westward, northward, and finally northeastward, along 
