ttle remarkable," says Mr. Espy, speaking of the storms and
hurricanes of the West Indies, "that all these storms, and _all others
which have been traced to the West Indies_, traveled N. W. almost at right
angles to the direction of the trade-wind in those latitudes, but very
nearly, if not exactly, in the direction of an upper current of the air
known to exist there toward the N. W." Substantially the same facts have
been repeated by Mr. Redfield, and demonstrated by his able
investigations, both there and in the Eastern Pacific, and are confirmed
by the observations of Edwards, Lawson, and others, while residents there.
It is a matter of surprise that gentlemen like Messrs. Redfield and Espy,
who have certainly displayed great ability in the investigations of
meteorological phenomena, should fail to recognize a more intimate
relation between this upper current and the storms they were
investigating, and to detect the general laws which govern both. The
storms and hurricanes of the West Indies are comparatively of small
diameter, and have little advance condensation. When they pass on to the
south-western portion of North America and curve to the N. E., as they
frequently do, they enlarge in front and at the sides, and their advance
condensation, which is not dense enough to drop rain, extends in some
cases from one to three hundred miles; and the storm itself, by the time
it reaches the Alleghanies, may extend one thousand to fifteen hundred
miles, and perhaps in certain magnetic states of the surface, and
occasionally, may cover the entire portion of the continent, from north to
south. Such, probably, was very nearly the extension of the storm
investigated by Professor Loomis. In the West Indies, however, at the
commencement, they vary from twenty to one hundred miles, or possibly
more, in width.

First, they are preceded by a hot, sultry and oppressive atmosphere--_as
are electric storms every where_--a peculiar electric state of the earth
and adjacent air.

Second, the black clouds and lightning which indicate the approaching
hurricane are seen to the S., S. E., and E. S. E., according to the season
of the year, as we see them at the westward. During the rainy season, and
when the storm, as is usual at that period, is small, and the S. E. trade
blows more eastwardly, the wind at the Windward Islands, possibly, may set
in at the north, and back round by the east as it progresses. So Colonel
Reid thinks it sometimes