The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-12-31
TORNADOES.
BY RICHARD A. PROCTOR, B. A., F.R.A.s.,
AUTHOR OF "sATURN AND IT'S SYSTEM" ETC.

70 agencies which-benefoial, doubtless, in
the long run, perhaps necessary to the very
existence Of terrestrial races-appear, at first
sight, energetically destructive. Such are-in
order of destructiveness-th hurricane, the
earthquake, the volcano, and the thunder
storm. When we read of earthquakes, such
rs those which overthrew Lisbon, Callao, and
Riobamba, and learn that one hundred thou
sand persons fell victims in the great Sicilian
earthquake in 1868, and probably three hun
dred thousand in the two earthquakes which
assailed Antioch in the years 526 and 612, we
are dis posed to assign at once to this devasts-
ting phenomenon the foremost place among
the agents of destruction. But this judgment
must be reversed when we consider that earth
uuakes--though so fearfully and suddenly
destructive both to life and prOperty,-yet
occur but seldom compared with wind storms
while the effects of a real hurricane are
scarcely less destructive than those of the
sharpest shocks of earthquake. After Ord-
nary storms, long miles of the sea-coast are
strewn with the wrecks of many once gallant
ships, and with the bodies of their hapless
crews. In the spring of 1866 there might be
seen at a single view from the heights near
Plymouth twenty-five shipwrecked vessels
and this after a storm which, though severe
was but triaing compared with the hurr-
canes which sweep over the torrid zones
and thence, scarcely diminished in force
as far north sometimes as our own
1atitudes. 1t was in such q hurricane that the
Royal Charter was wrecked, and hundreds of
stout ships with her. In the great hurricane
of 1850, which commenced at Barbados and
swept across the whole breadth of the North
Atlantic, fifty sail were driven ashore at the
Bermudas, two line of-battle ships went down
at sea, and upwards of twenty thousand per-
sons lost their lives on the land. So tremen-
dous was the force of this hurricane Captain
Maury tells us) that ''the bark was blown
from the trees, and the fruits of the earth de-
strOyed; the very bottom and depths of the
sea were uprooted-forts and castles were
washed away, and their great guns carried in
the air like chaff houses were raze1 ships
wrecked, and the bodies of men and beasts
lifted up in the air and dashed to pieces in the
stOrm"-on account, however, which (though
doubtless faithfully rendered by Maury from
the authorities he consulted) must perhaps be
accepted cum grdno, and specially in reference
to the great guns carried in the air 'like
Chaff"
In the gale of August, 1882 all the trophies
Of Lord ROdney's victory, except the "Ardent,"
were destroyed, two British ships-of-the- line
fOundered at sea, numbers of merchantmen
under Admiral Graves convoy were wrecked,
and at sea alone three thousand lives were
lost.
But, quite recently, storm far more de-
Structive than these swept over the Bay of
Bengal. Most of our readers doubtless re-
member the great gale of October, 1864 in
which all the ships in harbor at Calcutta were
swept from their anchorage, and driven one
upon another in inextricable confusion. Fear
ful as was the loss of life and property in Cal
cutta harbor, the destruction Gu land was
greater. A vast wave swept for miles over
the surrounding country, embankments were
destroyed, and whole villages, with their in
habitants, swept away. Fifty thousand souls,
il is believed, perished in this fearful hur-
Eicane.
The gale which has just ravaged the Gulf of
Mexico adds another to the long list of dis
astrous hurricanes. As we write, the effects
produced by this tornado are beginning to be
made known. Already its destructiveness has
become but too certainly evidenced.
The laws which appear to regulate the gene
ration and the progress of cyclonic storms are
well worthy of careful study.
The regions chiefly infested by hurricanes
are the West Indies, the southern parts of the
Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, and the
China seas. Each region has its special hurri-
cane season.
In the West Indies, cyclones occur princi-
pally in August and September, when the
southeast mOnsoons are at their height. At
the same season the African southwesterly
monsoons are blowing. Accordingly there are
two sets of winds, both blowing heavily and
steadily from the Atlantic, disturbing the
atmospheric equilibrium, and thus in ali pro-
liability generating the great West Indian
hurricanes. The storms thus arising show
their force first at distance of about six or
seven hundred miles from the equator, and far
TO the east of the region in which they attain
their greatest fury. They sweep with north
westerly course to the Gulf of Mexico. pass
thence northwardg, and so to the northeast,
sweeping in a wide curve (resembling the
letter U placed thus q around the West
indian seas, and thence travelling across the
Atlantic, generally expending their fury before
they reach the shores of Western Er-
Ihis course Is me storn-traok Tor storm = as
ne shall call it) Of the behavior of the winds
as they traverse this track, we shall have to
speak when we cometo consider the popularity
ffOm which these storms derive their names
of "cyclones' and "tornadoes.'
The hurricanes of the Indian Ocean occur at
the "changing of the monsoons." "During
the interregnum," writes Maury, ''the fends
of the storm hold their terrific sway" Be-
Calmed, often, for day or two, seamen hear
moaning sounds in the air, forewarning them
of the coming storm. Then, suddenly, the
winds break loose from the forces which have
for awhile controlled them, and ''seem to rage
with fury that would break up the fountains
of the deep"
In the North Indian seas hurricanes rage at
the same season as in the West Indies.
In the China seas occur those fearful gales
known among sailors as "typhoOns, - OF 'white
squalls" These take place at the changing
of the monsoons. Generated, like the West
Indian hurricanes, at a distance of some ten
or twelve degrees from the equator, typhoons
RweeD in q curye similar to that folowed nv