Graham's Magazine, Vol. XLI, No. 4, October 1852Various
General
Graham's Magazine, Vol. XLI, No. 4, October 1852
Various
Literature -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals
land with their foliage and fruit, and immense chestnuts, which had
withstood the storms of ages, were laid prostrate on the ground, while
those that remained erect had scarcely a branch, and were all leafless.
It was observed, that when the gale ended, the wind was in the west,
whereas in the early part of its action the east end of the chapel had
been blown in, which shows the wind then to have been in the east. The
hurricanes of New South Wales have been observed to develop the same
peculiarity. Mr. Meredith traced the path of one in the centre, and
found at the termination a circle plainly shown, in which the trees lay
all ways.
The cause of this rotatory motion of storms remains in obscurity, but it
is probably due in part to the same law under which eddies or whirlpools
are formed in water, by two currents being obliquely impelled against
each other. The great hurricanes may thus be considered identical with
the small local whirlwinds, which are common with us in the summer
season, carrying upward and along the dust and loose grass in spiral
columns, exhibiting a progressive and rotatory motion. In the region of
the sandy deserts these atmospheric whirls transpire upon a great scale,
raising up immense quantities of the loose particles in columns to a
considerable height, which sweep along with prodigious violence, and
have occasionally swallowed up whole caravans in their tremendous
vortex.
“Man mounts on man, on camels camels rush,
Hosts march on hosts, and nations nations crush,
Wheeling in air the winged islands fall,
And one great earthy ocean covers all.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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