Mr. Redfield has traced them in supposed connection with storms which continue from that vicinity across the United States to the E. N. E., and endeavored to connect them with those storms, as the left-hand winds of a rotary gale. Obviously, I think, they are identical with our N. W. winds which also follow, indeed, but are distinct from the storms.

There are a class of northers in the Gulf of Mexico—the “Nortes del Muero Colorado”—sometimes occurring in the summer months, beginning at N. E., veering about and settling at N. N. W., and as they decline hauling round by the west to the southward. These winds correspond precisely with the hurricane winds of the West Indies, and are doubtless the incident winds of a storm traveling thence to the N. N. W. precisely as our N. E. or E. N. E gales are incident storm winds to the N. E. storms of our latitude.

In this connection we will look at the peculiarities of a West India hurricane.

“It is not a little 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 does, at Barbadoes. But when the belt of rains is south, and the hurricane comes from the south-east, and is larger and more violent in its action, and the north-east winds prevail, the first effect is an increase of these trades. Soon, however, the wind hauls to the north and north-west, in opposition to its course, bearing the same relation to it that our east and north-east winds bear to storms in the United States; and the wind hauls around during the passage of the storm to the west, south-west, and south-east, and at the latter point it clears off. Mr. Edwards in his History of Jamaica says—and as a resident, his authority should be decisive as to this Island—“that all hurricanes begin from the north, veer back to the W. N. W., W., and S. S. W., and when they get around to the S. E. the foul weather breaks up.” Doubtless the same is true of the class of northers of which we are speaking on the Gulf of Mexico. But with this class the barometer does not rise during the gale, and in proportion to its length and violence. With the other class of N. W. winds—the northers of winter—it does.

The following description of two winter northers, copied from Colonel Reid’s valuable work, will illustrate what has been said. Precisely such changes from S. E. rains to N. W. winds, with blue sky and detached dark clouds—fair-weather N. W. scud—occur every autumn in October and November, and the falling of the thermometer and rising of the barometer, after rain, and a change of the wind, are perfectly characteristic.

1843.Wind.Force.Weather.Bar.Ther.
Jan. 30.
A.M. 4.S. S. W.2b. c.29.9077Off Tampico.
Noon.South.5b. c. r.29.8676Lat. 23° 41′ N., Long. 94° 50′ W.
P.M. 8.South.6b. c. r.29.8476
Jan. 31.
A.M. 4.S. Easterly.3b. c.29.9074Between 6 and 10 A.M., wind was variable.
Noon.N. by W.9c. q. w.29.9676Norther commenced at 10 A. M.
P.M. 8.N. N. W.9c.30.0973Lat. 22° 36′ N., Long. 95° 48′ W.
Feb. 1.
A.M. 4.N. N. W.7c. g.30.2963Lat. 22° 9′ N., Long. 94° 50′ W.
Noon.Westerly.6c.30.0367
P.M. 8.Calm.0c.30.2667
Feb. 14.
A.M. 4.S. E.3b. c. r.29.6673At Sacraficios.
Noon.S. W.4b. c.29.62 Norther comc’d at 5.30 P.M.
P.M. 8.N. W. by N.10c. q. u.29.7265
Feb. 15.
A.M. 4.N. W. by N.10c. q. u.30.1061Gale moderated and again freshened about 8 A.M.
Noon.N. W. by N.10c. g. q.30.1961
P.M. 8.N. W.4c. g.30.2065
Feb. 16.
A.M. 4.N. W.3q.30.1862
P.M. 8.N. N. W.2c. g.30.2166

b. indicates blue sky—c. detached clouds—r. rain—v. visibility of objects—q. squalls—w. wet dew—u. ugly threatening appearance—g. gloomy weather.

The exact counterpart of the first norther may be observed with us every fall. On the 30th January, with a rising thermometer and falling barometer, there was rain at midday. The night following was moist—the next day, about ten A.M., the wind came out N. W., with squalls and gloomy weather, a falling thermometer, and rising barometer.