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heavens, described as—“Flaming clouds on the horizon from whence proceeds the fiery tempest”; “appearing like entire conflagrations of the air and seas.”—And on other occasions “appearing as borders round the edges of remarkably dense and dark clouds, reflecting an awful redness upon the sails and ship.”
A number of similar cases are recorded which show that this red light and sky is not an uncommon phenomenon, or precursor, of typhoons.
Nearly all writers agree that a typhoon is a circular storm-disc varying from one to ten miles in height, and in diameter from fifty to one thousand miles; and that the winds within the disc blow in circles—or nearly so—round a common centre, which is generally calm, and varying in size from one tenth to one fifth, and in some cases as much as one-fourth, of the whole diameter of the gale.
Writers as we have seen differ as to the place of formation, or commencement, of these gales. Some asserting with Dr. Alexander Thom that they are formed on the borders of the trade winds and monsoons; and others, with Messrs. Redfield and Peddington that their motion is caused by opposing currents meeting in mid-air, and differing in temperature, humidity, electricity, &c., &c.
Col. Reid suggests that electricity and magnetism have something to do with the formation and continuance of these gales; and Mr. Peddington says they are, in his opinion, purely electrical phenomena.
Now, if we consider the theory of the mid-air formation of circular gales, and imagine two currents of air of different temperatures, degrees of moisture, and charged respectively, with positive and negative electric fluids (the well known properties of which are to attract each other) travelling in opposite directions, it is probable that the meeting of these unequal and opposite forces, in the act of seeking or establishing an equilibrium, may have a rotary motion imparted to them; the first particles in meeting having become neutralized and formed a focus round which the remaining currents commence to move with great rapidity, and so impart their motion to the
