Page:Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology.djvu/464

438 time to stop often or to run back far; neither have the counter-trades of the south time to blow backward; consequently, such being the conditions, we should also expect to find in the extra-tropical south a gale with easting in it much more seldom than in the extra-tropical north.

821. Gales in the two hemispheres.—We shall appeal to observations for the correctness of this conjecture, and claim for it, also, as presently will appear, marine meteorology.

{{center|Average Number {to the 1000 Observations) of Gales, with Easting and with Westing in them, between the corresponding Parallels in the North and South Atlantic, as shown by the Storm and Rain Charts.}}

Thus the Storm and Rain Charts show that between the parallels of 40° and 55° there were in the northern hemisphere 33,515 observations, and that for every 1000 observations there were 24 gales with easting and 105 with westing. That in the southern, there were 19,473 observations, and for every 1000 of these there were 5 gales with easting and 80 with westing in them. Those for the southern hemisphere are only for that part of the ocean through which vessels pass on their way to and fro around Cape Horn. That part of this route which lies between 40° and 55° S., is under the lee of South America; and Patagonia, that lies east of the Andes, is almost a rainless region; consequently, we might expect to find more unsteady winds and fewer rains in that part of the ocean where the observations for the southern part of the tables were made than we should expect to meet with well out to sea, as at the distance of two or three thousand miles to the eastward of Patagonia. So that the contrast presented by the above statement would probably be much greater did our observations extend entirely across the South, as they do across