There are three well known regions of tropical cyclones: viz., in the West Indies, where they are called Hurricanes; in the China Sea, where they are known as Typhoons; and in the Indian Ocean, where they are generally called Cyclones. In all these districts the storms are apt to occur at the time of the change in direction of the regular winds.

During the passage of a cyclone, waves are produced on the ocean which are not at generally more than a few feet high, but extend over a considerable area. As long as this high water has plenty of room in which to move, no serious results are produced; but when its progress is checked by shallow water, as on approaching the coast of a continent, owing to the immense mass of water propelled, its height becomes terrific and a great amount of damage results.

The coasts of Coromandel in the East Indies have, on several occasions, suffered from these enormous waves. In December, 1789, during a dreadful cyclone, the people on the coast saw three huge waves advancing from the ocean. When these waves reached the coast they swept over the land, causing the death of 20,000 people. Ships, torn from their anchorage, were thrown high and dry on the land, and when the waters had run back they left a surface so covered with mounds of sand and mud that it was impossible to recover the bodies of the dead or regain valuables that had been destroyed.

During the passage of a cyclone in India, in June, 1822, waves produced in a similar manner, rushing up the mouths of the Ganges, drowned about 50,000 of the inhabitants; and during another cyclone that occurred on the 21st of May, 1833, no less than 300 villages were destroyed at the mouth of the Hoogly, and 50,000 people drowned.

Probably the most terrific cyclone of modern times was that known as the "great hurricane" of October 10th, 1780. This storm, starting from the Barbadoes, sunk an English fleet anchored at Ste. Lucie, and then ravaged the entire island, blowing down the houses and burying over 6,000

people in the ruins. Then, moving on Martinique, it overtook a French transport fleet, sinking forty ships with 4,000 people, all of whom perished. Further on to the north the islands of San Domingo, St. Vincent, and St. Eustache were devastated, and nearly all the vessels in the track of the cyclone were lost with all on board.

In

The Great Hurricane was very destructive inland. Martinique 9,000 people were killed. At St. Pierre, 1,000 people were killed, and not a single house was left standing, for a mass of water from the ocean, twenty-five feet high, rushed over the land. At Port Royal, seven churches, including the cathedral, besides 1,400 houses, were blown down, and many people killed. The loss of life and property was great also elsewhere.

Cyclonic storms, the calm centres of which are more limited than those of cyclones, are called tornadoes. These

FIG. 34. TORNADO

storms possess both a rotary and a progressive motion. Tornadoes are invariably attended by the production of a funnel-shaped cloud that hangs downward from the bottom of a great mass of thunder clouds, such as is seen in Fig. 34.

In tornadoes the funnel-shaped mass moves over the surface with a velocity of from twenty to forty miles an hour. This motion is accompanied by a deafening roaring noise. As it passes, everything is destroyed. The tornado may continue for half an hour or an hour. Its destructive path is seldom wider than a quarter of a mile, but may be twenty or more miles in length.

The velocity of the wind in a tornado frequently attains an almost incredible value. The following is condensed from Davis: Houses are torn to pieces and scattered in fragments for hundreds of feet along the path of the storm. Trees torn up by their roots, or actually broken off from their stumps, stripped of their smaller branches, are carried violently through the air, producing great damage when they fall to the earth. People are carried bodily through the air, thrown on the earth and instantly killed. Cattle are frequently impaled by boards or pieces of flying timber. Even heavy plows, logs or chains are carried for many feet through the air. The wind blows so furiously that chickens are stripped of their feathers, and it is even said that nails. are driven into boards. There is a case on record in Wisconsin twenty-five years ago of wheat stubble (straw) that had been driven through wooden chips freshly cut from the trees.

When a tornado or whirlwind passes over a water surface it produces a phenomenon known as a waterspout. A waterspout consists of a tapering, funnel-shaped cloud, that is first seen as a small pendant, hanging from the under surface of a cloud mass, as in the case of a tornado. As it passes over the water surface the waves are agitated and apparently rise to meet it; so that at last a moving column of water is formed which advances rapidly.

While the spout seems to draw salt water from the sea, yet waterspouts consist for the greater part of fresh water, so that the water they contain must have been condensed from the air. The story is told of a waterspout that, passing over a vessel, so deluged the captain that he was obliged to hold on to some object to prevent being washed overboard. When asked if he had tasted the water, he indignantly inquired how he could help tasting it, since it ran into his nose, eyes, and ears. It was, he said, as fresh as any spring

water he ever tasted.

Waterspouts are most common near the tropics. Although

greatly dreaded by ships, I do not remember ever to have read an account of any serious accidents caused by them to large vessels. Of course, it is possible that some of the ships that have sailed out from port and never been heard of again, were destroyed by these formidable looking moving columns.

Waterspouts are not limited to the waters of the oceans. Sometimes similar phenomena, known as landspouts, occur, during which enormous funnels or cones reaching downward from the sky move over the surface of the land carrying with them whirling columns of water or of sand. It is probable that some cloud-bursts are due to phenomena of this character.

Waterspouts are frequently attended by electrical phenomena, being accompanied by lightning and thunder as well as by rain or hail. During the passage of these spouts, which are sometimes called devastating spouts when they occur over the land, a noise like that produced by carriages rolling over a stony road, or like that of a heavy hailstorm occurs. The smell of ozone is quite common, and sometimes the moving columns emit a phosphorescent light.

CHAPTER XVI

DEVIL WINDS

In some parts of the world there are winds that appear to take such delight in torturing mankind, that they are firmly believed by the uneducated and uncivilized to be under the direct control of the powers of darkness, and are, therefore, called devil winds. These winds cause great suffering; some by reason of their very high temperatures, together with either excessive dryness or excessive moisture. Others by reason of their low temperatures and great velocities. Some of them cause such great anguish and loss of life that they appear to be actually poisonous. A few, however, although bringing suffering with them, so far from being poisonous are actually beneficial in the case of certain diseases. All the so-called devil winds are due to unusual differences of temperature that modify the regular winds.

The equatorial deserts are great disturbers of the winds. The winds that blow from their highly heated surfaces reach the adjoining countries laden with fine dust particles, with excessively high temperatures. At the same time the cooler winds blowing over these countries towards the desert bring with them refreshing lower temperatures.

Practically all the countries surrounding a desert have this interchange of winds. The principal hot or devil winds due to the Sahara and its neighboring deserts are the Harmattan which blows over the coast of Guinea; the Simoon, which blows over Arabia, Nubia, Persia, and Syria; the Khamsin, which blows over Egypt; the Sirocco, which blows over southern Italy and Sicily; and the Solano, which blows over Spain.