206 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



1861 the wind blew east for twenty-tive days in spite of Maury's book, 

 and a ship I was sailing in took four weeks to get from Quebec to the 

 longitude of Cape Eace, which was not passed until December 9. For my 

 part, I feel sure that Cabot had wind from all points of the compass, 

 although more from the west than any other quarter, and probably, as it 

 was June, a little more from the southwest than the northwest. I am not 

 surprised that he told Soncino that he " wandered for a long time," and 

 that leads me to think that Cabot's voyage was a greater trial of courage 

 than the admiral's voyage in the sunny regions of the trades. Still, I Uke 

 to believe in the uniformity of nature, and that, within certain limits of 

 variation, the winds revolve in their courses as we read that they did in the 

 days of King Solomon. As a refuge, then, from the eccentricities of con- 

 troversy, when winds and currents are improvised to set ships on appro- 

 priate landfalls, I fall back on the pilot chart of the North Atlantic for 

 last June, where the probable winds are laid down for the guidance of 

 sailors by officials at Washington, reckless of Cabot and his landfall. 

 There was nothing unusual about the June weather of 1897, and T find 

 that the winds expected were northwest, 6 days ; southwest, 9 days ; 

 calm, 2 days ; variable, 13 days. Total, 30 days. We shall never get 

 nearer than that, argue as we may. 



A very good idea of the conditions of a voyage such as Cabot's may 

 also be formed from Edward Haies's account of Sir Humphi-ey Gilbert's 

 expedition in 1583. Haies was captain and owner of the " Grolden Hind." 

 The fleet set sail from Plymouth on June 11th, for Cape Eace as its first 

 rendezvous, and, missing that, the vessels were to meet at Cape Breton. 

 He says : " From Saturday, the 15th of June, until the 28th, we never 

 " had faire day without fogge or raine and winds bad, much to the west- 

 " north-west, whereby we were driven southward unto 41° scarse.""^ 

 After saying that in March, April and May the winds are usually more 

 favourable for western-bound vessels, he adds : "Also we were encombred 

 " with much fogge and mists in maner palpable, in which we could not 

 " keejje so well together." From this we may see that John Cabot must 

 of necessity have followed his compass. He was sailing on an absolutely 

 unknown sea, and there must have been long periods when he could not 

 get an observation by day or even see the stars at night ; therefore, as he 

 intended to return to England, he had only his comj^ass by which to 

 retrace his course. We may also see how easily Cabot might have 

 dropped south of Cape Eace and have passed it in a fog. 



For these very excellent reasons we may spare ourselves vain specu- 

 lation as to Cabot's actual experiences upon the ocean. Still, we do know 

 that there were, as there still arc, certain invariable forces on the North 

 Atlantic which exert a constant influence to divert southwards a vessel on 

 a westward course. One of these, the magnetic variation, has already 

 been discussed ; the other is the Arctic current, and Cabot must have 



