1 82 Voyage of the Novara. 



At nine a.m., we cast oflP from the tug, not far from the 

 little island of Razza, with its lighthouse, and spread our 

 sails to the breeze, which gradually freshened, but blew from 

 the N.E., which was foul for our course. However, we could 

 still derive some advantage from even this, as it was our 

 intention to steer southerly from Rio, so as to be able to 

 make almost exclusively a great circle course to the Cape of 

 Good Hope, after we should have got further south than 

 the Antarctic limit of the S.E. trades. 



The near termination of the winter quarter in this 

 southern hemisphere, the approximation of the sun towards 

 the south pole, and the consequent tendency of the zones of 

 wind and currents of air to pursue the same direction, gave 

 us reason to hope, that when approaching the limits of the 

 trades, we should find a change of wind, which should shorten 

 the voyage, or at all events keep us clear of storms. 



In the open ocean, where there are no hills or extraordinary 

 conformations of land to break the uniformity of the earth's 

 surface, and where the expanse of water is unbroken by any 

 extensive group of islands, the disturbances in the atmospheric 

 belt must necessarily be much less strongly marked than 

 where continents are interposed, or in the narrow seas. The 

 winds themselves, under such circumstances, display even in 

 their shifts a certain amount of regularity, which is usually 

 dependent upon the universal laws of nature. 



Once any one is so fortunate as to comprehend the latter in 

 all their extent, so as to be cognisant of their results, it becomes 



