Page:Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology.djvu/463

Rh arrested in their course, or turned Lack in their circuits, as are those of the north. Consequently, moreover, we should not, either in the trades or the counter-trades of the southern hemisphere, look for as many calms as in those of the northern systems.

819. Facts established.—Wherefore, holding to this corollary, we may consider the following as established facts in the meteorology of the sea: That the S.E. trade-winds are stronger than the N.E.; that the N.W. passage-winds—the counter-trades of the south—are stronger and less liable to interruption in their circuits than the S.W., the counter-trades of the north; that the atmospherical circulation is more regular and brisk in the southern than it is in the northern hemisphere; and, to repeat: since the wind moves in its circuit more briskly through the southern than it does through the northern hemisphere, it consequently has less time to tarry or dally by the way in the south than in the north; hence the corollary just stated. But observations, also, as well as mathematically-drawn inferences, show that calms are much less prevalent in the southern hemisphere. For this inference observations are ample; they are grouped together by thousands and tens of thousands, both on the Pilot and the Storm and Rain Charts. These charts have not yet been completed for all parts of the ocean, but as far as they have been constructed the facts they utter are iii perfect agreement with the terms of this corollary.

820. Atmospherical circulation more active in the southern than in the northern hemisphere.—These premises being admitted, we may ascend another round on this ladder, and argue that, since the atmosphere moves more briskly and in more constant streams through its general channels of circulation in the southern than it does through them in the northern hemisphere; and that, since it is not arrested in its courses by calms as often in the former as it is in the latter, neither should it be turned back by the way, so as to blow in gales from the direction opposite to that in which the general circulation carries it. The atmosphere, in its movements along its regular channels of circulation, may be likened, that in the southern hemisphere to a fast railway train; that of the northern to a slow The slow train may, when "steam is up," run as fast as the fast train, but it is not obliged to get through so quick; therefore it may dally by the way, stop, run back, and still be through in time. Not so the fast; it has not