During the most violent shocks of the Typhoon, the man at the Pequod's jaw-bone tiller had several times been reelingly hurled to the deck by its spasmodic motions, even though preventer tackles had been attached to it--for they were slack--because some play to the tiller was indispensable.
Warmest climes but nurse the cruellest fangs: the tiger of Bengal crouches in spiced groves of ceaseless verdure. Skies the most effulgent but basket the deadliest thunders: gorgeous Cuba knows tornadoes that never swept tame northern lands. So, too, it is, that in these resplendent Japanese seas the mariner encounters the direst of all storms, the Typhoon. It will sometimes burst from out that cloudless sky, like an exploding bomb upon a dazed and sleepy town.
"Oh, thou dark Hindoo half of nature, who of drowned bones hast builded thy separate throne somewhere in the heart of these unverdured seas; thou art an infidel, thou queen, and too truly speakest to me in the wide-slaughtering Typhoon, and the hushed burial of its after calm. Nor has this thy whale sunwards turned his dying head, and then gone round again, without a lesson to me.
"Avast Stubb," cried Starbuck, "let the Typhoon sing, and strike his harp here in our rigging; but if thou art a brave man thou wilt hold thy peace."
Towards evening of that day, the Pequod was torn of her canvas, and bare-poled was left to fight a Typhoon which had struck her directly ahead. When darkness came on, sky and sea roared and split with the thunder, and blazed with the lightning, that showed the disabled masts fluttering here and there with the rags which the first fury of the tempest had left for its after sport.
"Peleg! Peleg!" said Bildad, lifting his eyes and hands, "thou thyself, as I myself, hast seen many a perilous time; thou knowest, Peleg, what it is to have the fear of death; how, then, can'st thou prate in this ungodly guise. Thou beliest thine own heart, Peleg. Tell me, when this same Pequod here had her three masts overboard in that typhoon on Japan, that same voyage when thou went mate with Captain Ahab, did'st thou not think of Death and the Judgment then?"
Some hours after midnight, the Typhoon abated so much, that through the strenuous exertions of Starbuck and Stubb--one engaged forward and the other aft--the shivered remnants of the jib and fore and main-top-sails were cut adrift from the spars, and went eddying away to leeward, like the feathers of an albatross, which sometimes are cast to the winds when that storm-tossed bird is on the wing.
_Climate and Health._--The climate is unhealthy, especially for Europeans. The rainfall has not been ascertained in the interior. In the northern districts it is probably considerably less than at Lagos, where it is about 70 in. a year. The variation is, however, very great. In 1901 the rainfall was 112 in., in 1902 but 47, these figures being respectively the highest and lowest recorded in a period of seventeen years. The mean temperature at Lagos is 82.5° F., the range being from 68° to 91°. At certain seasons sudden heavy squalls of wind and rain that last for a few hours are common. The hurricane and typhoon are unknown. The principal diseases are malarial fever, smallpox, rheumatism, peripheral neuritis, dysentery, chest diseases and guinea-worm. Fever not unfrequently assumes the dangerous form known as "black-water fever." The frequency of smallpox is being much diminished outside the larger towns in the interior, in which vaccination is neglected. The absence of plague, yellow fever, cholera, typhoid fever and scarlatina is noteworthy. A mild form of yaws is endemic. Entry: LAGOS
_Climate._--The climate of Indo-China is that of an inter-tropical country, damp and hot. But the difference between the southern and northern regions is marked, as regards both temperature and meteorology. Cochin-China and Cambodia have very regular seasons, corresponding with the monsoons. The north-easterly monsoon blows from about the 15th of October to the 15th of April, within a day or so. The temperature remains almost steady during this time, varying but slightly from 78.8° to 80.6° F. by day to 68° by night. This is the dry season. From the 15th of April to the 15th of October the monsoon reverses, and blows from the south-west. The season of daily rains and tornadoes commences. The temperature rises from 80.6° to 84.2°, at which it remains day and night. April and May are the hottest months (from 86° to 93.2°). The damp unwholesome heat sometimes produces dysentery and cholera. The climate of Annam is less regular. The north-easterly monsoon, which is "the ocean-wind," brings the rains in September. The north-easterly gales lower the temperature below 59°. September is the month in which the typhoon blows. During the dry season--June, July and August--the thermometer oscillates between 86° and 95°. The nights, however, are comparatively cool. Tongking has a winter season--October to May. The temperature, lowered by fog and the rains, does not rise above 75.2° and descends to 50° over the delta, and to 44.6° and even 42.8° in the highlands, where white frost is occasionally seen. The summer, on the other hand, is scorching. The wind veers to the south-east and remains there until October. The temperature rises to over 83°; often it reaches and continues for several days at 95° or even more. The nights are distressingly airless. The Laos country in the interior and lying at a high altitude is cooler and drier. Its deep valleys and high hills vary its climate. Entry: INDO
Among the more remarkable phenomena of the hotter seas of Asia must be noticed the revolving storms or cyclones, which are of frequent occurrence in the hot months in the Indian Ocean and China Sea, in which last they are known under the name of typhoon. The cyclones of the Bay of Bengal appear to originate over the Andaman and Nicobar islands, and are commonly propagated in a north-westward direction, striking the east coast of the Indian peninsula at various points, and then often advancing with an easterly tendency over the land, and passing with extreme violence across the delta of the Ganges. They occur in all the hot months, from June to October, and more rarely in November, and appear to be originated by adverse currents from the north meeting those of the south-west monsoon. The cyclones of the China Sea also occur in the hot months of the year, but they advance from north-east to south-west, though occasionally from east to west; they originate near the island of Formosa, and extend to about the 10th degree of N. lat. They are thus developed in nearly the same latitudes and in the same months as those of the Indian Sea, though their progress is in a different direction. In both cases, however, the storms appear to advance towards the area of greatest heat. In these storms the wind invariably circulates from north by west through south to east. Entry: CLIMATE
During the cold season, which begins in October and ends in April, northerly and westerly winds prevail throughout Japan. They come from the adjacent continent of Asia, and they develop considerable strength owing to the fact that there is an average difference of some 22 mm. between the atmospheric pressure (750 mm.) in the Pacific and that (772 mm.) in the Japanese islands. But during the warm season, from May to September, these conditions of atmospheric pressure are reversed, that in the Pacific rising to 767 mm. and that in Japan falling to 750 mm. Hence throughout this season the prevailing winds are light breezes from the west and south. A comparison of the force habitually developed by the wind in various parts of the islands shows that at Suttsu in Yezo the average strength is 9 metres per second, while Izuhara in the island Tsushima, Kumamoto in Kiushiu and Gifu in the east centre of the main island stand at the bottom of the list with an average wind velocity of only 2 metres. A calamitous atmospheric feature is the periodical arrival of storms called "typhoons" (Japanese _tai-fu_ or "great wind"). These have their origin, for the most part, in the China Sea, especially in the vicinity of Luzon. Their season is from June to October, but they occur in other months also, and they develop a velocity of 5 to 75 m. an hour. The meteorological record for ten years ended 1905 shows a total of 120 typhoons, being an average of 12 annually. September had 14 of these phenomena, March 11 and April 10, leaving 85 for the remaining 9 months. But only 65 out of the whole number developed disastrous force. It is particularly unfortunate that September should be the season of greatest typhoon frequency, for the earlier varieties of rice flower in that month and a heavy storm does much damage. Thus, in 1902--by no means an abnormal year--statistics show the following disasters owing to typhoons: casualties to human life, 3639; ships and boats lost, 3244; buildings destroyed wholly or partially, 695,062; land inundated, 1,071,575 acres; roads destroyed, 1236 m.; bridges washed away, 13,685; embankments broken, 705 m.; crops damaged, 8,712,655 bushels. The total loss, including cost of repairs, was estimated at nearly 3 millions sterling, which may be regarded as an annual average. Entry: F
Upon searching, it was found that the casks last struck into the hold were perfectly sound, and that the leak must be further off. So, it being calm weather, they broke out deeper and deeper, disturbing the slumbers of the huge ground-tier butts; and from that black midnight sending those gigantic moles into the daylight above. So deep did they go; and so ancient, and corroded, and weedy the aspect of the lowermost puncheons, that you almost looked next for some mouldy corner-stone cask containing coins of Captain Noah, with copies of the posted placards, vainly warning the infatuated old world from the flood. Tierce after tierce, too, of water, and bread, and beef, and shooks of staves, and iron bundles of hoops, were hoisted out, till at last the piled decks were hard to get about; and the hollow hull echoed under foot, as if you were treading over empty catacombs, and reeled and rolled in the sea like an air-freighted demijohn. Top-heavy was the ship as a dinnerless student with all Aristotle in his head. Well was it that the Typhoons did not visit them then.
"Let the owners stand on Nantucket beach and outyell the Typhoons. What cares Ahab? Owners, owners? Thou art always prating to me, Starbuck, about those miserly owners, as if the owners were my conscience. But look ye, the only real owner of anything is its commander; and hark ye, my conscience is in this ship's keel.--On deck!"
South of Hang-chow bay the character of the coast alters. In place of the alluvial plain, with flat, sandy and often marshy shores, the coast is generally hilly, often rocky and abrupt; it abounds in small indentations and possesses numerous excellent harbours; in this region are Fu-chow, Amoy, Swatow, Hongkong, Macao, Canton and other well-known ports. The whole of this coast is bordered by small islands. Formosa lies opposite the S.E. coast, the channel between it and Fu-kien province being about 100 m. wide. Formosa protects the neighbouring regions of China from the typhoons experienced farther north and farther south. Entry: I
Many improvements have been made in and about the city since the American occupation in 1898. The small tram-cars drawn by native ponies have been replaced by a modern American electric street-railway service, and the railway service to and from other towns on the island of Luzon has been extended; in 1908, 267 m. were open to traffic and 400 m. were under construction. Connected with Manila by electric railway is Fort William McKinley, a U.S. army post in the hills five miles away, quartering about 3000 men. The scheme for dredging some of the _esteros_ in order to make them more navigable and for filling in others has been in part executed. But the greatest improvement affecting transportation is the construction of a safe and deep harbour. Although Manila Bay is nearly landlocked, it is so large that in times of strong winds it becomes nearly as turbulent as the open sea, and it was formerly so shallow that vessels drawing more than 16 ft. could approach no nearer than two miles to the shore, where typhoons of the south-west monsoon not infrequently obliged them to lie several days before they could be unloaded. Two long jetties or breakwaters have now been constructed, about 350 acres of harbour area have been dredged to a depth of 30 ft., and two wharves of steel and concrete, one 600 ft. long and 70 ft. wide, and the other 650 ft. long and 110 ft. wide, were in process of construction in 1909. The Pasig river has been dredged up to the Bridge of Spain to a depth of 18 ft. and from the Bridge of Spain to Laguna de Bay to a depth of 6 ft. The construction of the harbour was begun about 1880 by the Spanish government, but the work was less than one-third completed when the Americans took possession. Among other American improvements were: an efficient fire department, a sewer system whereby the sewage by means of pumps is discharged into the bay more than a mile from the shore; a system of gravity waterworks (1908) whereby the city's water supply is taken from the Mariquina river about 23 m. from the city into a storage reservoir which has a capacity of 2,000,000,000 gallons and is 212 ft. above the sea; the extension of the Luneta, the principal pleasure-ground; a boulevard for several miles along the bay; a botanical garden; and new market buildings. Entry: MANILA
The climate is damp, hot and malarious. In the north, the driest and best months are October, November and December; in the south, December, January, February and March. The sea immediately south of Formosa is the birthplace of innumerable typhoons, but the high mountains of the island protect it partially against the extreme violence of the wind. Entry: FORMOSA
FORMOSA (called _Taiwan_ by the Chinese, and following them by the Japanese, into whose possession it came after their war with China in 1895), an island in the western Pacific Ocean, between the Southern and the Eastern China Sea, separated from the Chinese mainland by the Formosa Strait, which has a width of about 90 m. in its narrowest part. The island is 225 m. long and from 60 to 80 m. broad, has a coast-line measuring 731 m., an area of 13,429 sq. m.--being thus nearly the same size as Kiushiu, the most southern of the four chief islands forming the Japanese empire proper--and extends from 20° 56' to 25° 15' N. and from 120° to 122° E. It forms part of the long line of islands which are interposed as a protective barrier between the Asiatic coast and the outer Pacific, and is the cause of the immunity from typhoons enjoyed by the ports of China from Amoy to the Yellow Sea. Along the western coast is a low plain, not exceeding 20 m. in extreme width; on the east coast there is a rich plain called Giran, and there are also some fertile valleys in the neighbourhood of Karenko and Pinan, extending up the longitudinal valleys of the rivers Karenko and Pinan, between which and the east coast the Taito range intervenes; but the rest of the island is mountainous and covered with virgin forest. In the plains the soil is generally of sand or alluvial clay, covered in the valleys with a rich vegetable mould. The scenery of Formosa is frequently of majestic beauty, and to this it is indebted for its European name, happily bestowed by the early Spanish navigators. Entry: FORMOSA
GUAM (Span. _Guajan_; _Guahan_, in the native Chamorro), the largest and most populous of the Ladrone or Mariana Islands, in the North Pacific, in 13° 26´ N. lat. and 144° 39´ E. long., about 1823 m. E. by S. of Hong Kong, and about 1450 m. E. of Manila. Pop. (1908) about 11,360, of whom 363 were foreigners, 140 being members of the U.S. naval force. Guam extends about 30 m. from N.N.E. to S.S.W., has an average width of about 6½ m., and has an area of 207 sq. m. The N. portion is a plateau from 300 to 600 ft. above the sea, lowest in the interior and highest along the E. and W. coast, where it terminates abruptly in bluffs and headlands; Mt Santa Rosa, toward the N. extremity, has an elevation of 840 ft. A range of hills from 700 to nearly 1300 ft. in height traverses the S. portion from N. to S. a little W. of the middle--Mt Jumullong Mangloc, the highest peak, has an elevation of 1274 ft. Between the foot of the steep W. slope of these hills and the sea is a belt of rolling lowlands and to the E. the surface is broken by the valleys of five rivers with a number of tributaries, has a general slope toward the sea, and terminates in a coast-line of bluffs. Apra (formerly San Luis d'Apra) on the middle W. coast is the only good harbour; it is about 3½ m. across, has a depth of 4-27 fathoms, and is divided into an inner and an outer harbour by a peninsula and an island. It serves as a naval station and as a port of transit between America and the Philippines, at which army transports call monthly. Deer, wild hog, duck, curlew, snipe and pigeon are abundant game, and several varieties of fish are caught. Some of the highest points of the island are nearly bare of vegetation, and the more elevated plateau surface is covered with sword grass, but in the valleys and on the lower portions of the plateaus there is valuable timber. The lowlands have a rich soil; in lower parts of the highlands raised coralliferous limestone with a light covering of soil appears, and in the higher parts the soil is entirely of clay and silt. The climate is agreeable and healthy. From December to June the N.E. trade winds prevail and the rainfall is relatively light; during the other six months the monsoon blows and produces the rainy season. Destructive typhoons and earthquakes sometimes visit Guam. The island is thought to possess little if any mineral wealth, with the possible exception of coal. Only a small part of Guam is under cultivation, and most of this lies along the S.W. coast, its chief products being cocoanuts, rice, sugar, coffee and cacao. A United States Agricultural Experiment Station in Guam (at Agaña) was provided for in 1908. Entry: GUAM
The size of waves depends upon the force of the wind, and the distance along which it blows continuously, in approximately the same direction, over a large expanse of ocean. The greatest waves are, accordingly, encountered where the maximum distance in a certain direction from the nearest land, or, as it is termed, the "fetch," coincides with the line travelled by the strongest gales. The dimensions, indeed, of waves in the worst storms depend primarily on the extent of the sea in which they are raised; though in certain seas they are occasionally greatly increased by the exceptional velocities attained by hurricanes and typhoons, which, however, are fortunately restricted to fairly well defined and limited regions. Waves have been found to attain a maximum height of about 10 ft. in the Lake of Geneva, 17 ft. in the Mediterranean Sea, 23 ft. in the Bay of Biscay, and 40 ft. in the Atlantic Ocean; whilst waves of 50 to 60 ft. in height have been observed in the Pacific Ocean off the Cape of Good Hope, where the expanse of sea reaches a maximum, and the exposure to gales is complete. The length of large waves bears no definite relation to their height, and is apparently due, in the long waves often observed in exposed situations, to the combination of several shorter waves in their onward course, which is naturally dependent on the extent of the exposure. Thus waves about 560 ft. in length have been met with during severe gales in the Atlantic Ocean; whilst waves from 600 to 1000 ft. long are regarded as of common occurrence in the Pacific Ocean during storms. Entry: BREAKWATER
_Climate._--In Annam the rainy season begins during September and lasts for three or four months, corresponding with the north-east monsoon and also with a period of typhoons. During the rains the temperature varies from 59 degrees or even lower to 75 degrees F. June, July and August are the hottest months, the thermometer often reaching 85 degrees or 90 degrees, though the heat of the day is to some degree compensated by the freshness of the nights. The south-west monsoon which brings rain in Cochin-China coincides with the dry season in Annam, the reason probably being that the mountains and lofty plateaus separating the two countries retain the precipitation. Entry: ANNAM
HURRICANE, a wind-storm of great force and violence, originally as experienced in the West Indies; it is now used to describe similar storms in other regions, except in the East Indies and the Chinese seas, where they are generally known as "typhoons." Hurricane is the strongest force of wind in the Beaufort scale. The Caribbean word _huracan_ was introduced by the Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch explorers of the 15th and 16th centuries into many European languages, as in Span. _huracan_, Portu. _furacao_, Ital. _uracane_, Fr. _ouragan_, and in Swed., Ger. and Dutch as _orkan_, or _orkaan_. A "hurricane-deck" is an upper deck on a steamer which protects the lower one, and incidentally serves as a promenade. Entry: HURRICANE