Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 15.djvu/706

688 thing, if he was scudding before the wind, the center would lie exactly on the starboard beam in the northern and on the port beam in the southern hemisphere.

Modern meteorologists, however, almost with one voice, declare for a spirally incurving movement as the most probable behavior of the wind, as would be indicated by the angle which its direction makes with the isobars as just explained; but this view presents no novelty, for it was first stated about forty years ago, and Piddington, in his "Sailor's Hornbook," says that even Redfield, when propounding his "Law of Storms," stated:

"I have never been able to conceive that the wind in violent storms moved only in circles. On the contrary, a vortical movement, approaching to that which may be seen in all lesser vortices, aërial or aqueous, appears to be an essential element of their violent and long-continued action, of their increased energy toward the center of axis, and of the accompanying rain. In conformity with this view, the storm-figure on my chart of the storms of 1830 was directed to be engraved in spiral or involute lines, but this point was yielded for the convenience of the engraver."

We see, therefore, that when we trace back to its origin the belief that any storms are really circular, we find that it was "the convenience of an engraver" which decided the question.

It may be safely asserted that there does not exist, for a single instance of a West Indian hurricane or China Sea typhoon, a sufficiency of evidence to convince any unprejudiced investigator as to what was the true path of the air in the storm. To show this path beyond the possibility of doubt, we require a considerable number of simultaneous observations taken on different sides of the storm center. These, however, were not forthcoming in the case of a single storm described by Redfield, Reid, or Piddington, so that the authority of the founders of the law of storms can not be cited as decisive of the question.

This suggestion of spiral motion must of course modify the simple rule for a ship scudding, of looking in the wind's eye, and taking eight points on the starboard or port side for the storm center, and indicates the probability that the true position of that spot will be at least two or three points ahead of the bearing given by that rule, so that the ship, if scudding, may be gradually approaching the most dangerous part of the storm.

The recent investigations of Mr. Meldrum, which have been thoroughly confirmed by Captain Toynbee's examination of the Nova Scotia storm of August 24, 1873, lead to the suspicion, not to use a stronger word, that these cyclonic storms are not symmetrical at all, and that at some parts of the system the wind blows directly toward the center, so that for a ship in such a situation, and scudding before the wind, the center would lie right ahead.

This is a subject which requires most careful study, in order to see