Mr Lawson on the Trade- Winds at Barbadoes. 143 



same time, their conjoint effect being to accelerate the trade, 

 I have often found the wind in the morning very sHght, and 

 as they approached the meridian it increased, and by mid-day 

 blew very fresh ; between 3 and 4 P.M. it began to decrease, 

 and remained slight during the night, and the following day 

 again ran through the same course, commencing a little later. 



21. During the summer and autumn, on the contrary, when 

 the moon's declination is nearly at^its northern limit, especially 

 about the period of conjunction, as she passes the meridian, 

 the trade-wind to the southward of these points, through the 

 zenith of which she moves, is checked in its onward progress, 

 while the equatorial current is equally accelerated through 

 the same space ; consequently, at the southern limit of the 

 trade, the air will nearly be in a state of quiescence, and it will 

 farther have a tendency to ascend, and to join the returning 

 current above at a more northerly latitude than, but for the 

 attraction of the moon, it would have done, or, in other words, 

 the equatorial limit of the trade will be removed considerably 

 to the northward. Now, as the lower portions of the atmo- 

 sphere over the sea, within the tropics, have a tendency to the 

 formation of an easterly breeze when the equatorial limit of 

 the NE. trade is removed to the northward, these, being 

 acted on by the same attraction which caused the alteration 

 of the margin of the trade, will be drawn to the northward, 

 and at the same time preserving an easterly direction, more 

 or less, will appear as winds from ESE., SE., or SSE., and 

 even south. 



22. Again, M'hen the moon approaches the inferior meridian, 

 the effect of her attraction being to accelerate the NE. trade 

 throughout its whole course, the south-easterly breeze should 

 disappear, and the trade be re-established in its place ; but, as 

 the new direction of the breeze was more or less opposed to 

 that it previously had, and as the cause of the new direction 

 acted but a short time at once, a brisk trade is seldom to be 

 expected. Frequently the force of the breeze is diminished 

 only, or the currents from opposite points continue, one flowing- 

 above the other, the NE. or trade-wind being generally the 

 lower. Similar effects are produced about the period of full 

 as at that of new moon ; and for the intermediate points they 



