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That which had been discovered by Mr. Redfield and verified by a great number of observations by Col. Reid has been termed the Law of Storms, and is briefly explained as follows:—If by reference to the Diagram we suppose the short curved arrows to represent the direction of the wind, and the long dotted arrow to indicate the track or course on which the gale is moving bodily forward, we shall have before us the Law of Storms in the Northern Hemisphere; and by reversing the whole, that is turning the points of the arrows in the opposite direction, the diagram will represent the Law of Storms in the Southern Hemisphere.
Mr. Peddington says in speaking on this subject. The words “Law of Storms,” then, signifies first;—that it has now been proved by the examination and careful analysis of perhaps more than two thousand logs and of some hundreds of storms by the authors already referred to (Redfield, Reid, Dove and others) and by many other observers in periodical publications; as well as some whose results have not yet been published, that the wind in hurricanes, and frequently in severe storms in the higher latitudes on both sides of the Equator, has two motions. It turns or blows round a focus or centre in a more or less circular form, and at the same time has a straight or curved motion forward, so that, like a great whirlwind, it is both turning round and, as it were, rolling forward at the same time.
Next it is proved that it turns, when it occurs on the North side of the Equator, from the East or the right hand by the North towards the West, or against the hands of a watch (as represented by this diagram), and in the Southern Hemisphere that its motion is the other way or with the hands of a watch;—being thus as expressed by Professor Dove of Berlin, South, East, North, West, for the Northern Hemisphere; and North, East, South, West for the Southern Hemisphere.
These two principal laws, (turning round a centre and moving forward), constitute the rule or law of storms, and it has been abundantly demonstrated to hold good for
