Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/34

24 farther south we entered the wide belt of ocean over which the north-east trade wind blows. These almost unchanging winds, on both sides of the equator, known as “the trades,” are remarkable evidences of the goodness and wisdom of God. The beauty of this arrangement cannot but strike a thoughtful voyager most deeply. Without dwelling upon the fact that these and their partner winds are the great regulators of airs, clouds, and rains over the whole earth, we cannot but notice their great importance to commerce. Every seaman knows that for twelve hundred or fifteen hundred miles north of the line he may look for a fresh breeze from the north-east during the whole year; again, south of the equator he will have some two thousand miles of ocean in which a south-east wind always blows. Often for two or three weeks scarce a sail will be shifted. The balminess of the air, and the beauty of the fleecy clouds, make the trades a most delightful part of an East India voyage.

On either side of the equator, and between these two broad belts of easterly wind, lies the region of calms and squalls. It was through this region of light winds, squalls, and calms, that Columbus made his slow way to America,