172 Prof. E. IMitchell on the Proximate 



the N. E. coast of Asia. In Nova Scotia, north-west, and at 

 Hudson's Bay west, winds hlow for three-fourths of the year. 



Cff-) ^^^^ information respecting the winds of the southern 

 hemisphere is less ample. Cape Horn (lat. 56°), has long been 

 infamous amongst navigators for the violent westerly gales that 

 prevail there, rendering it sometimes almost impossible to sail 

 round from the Atlantic into the Pacific. (See Stewards Journal.) 

 " The prevailing winds of this region are heavy gales from the 

 west, the direct course to be steered in passing the Cape, and 

 ships are often detained by them three times the period we have 

 been (twenty-one days), and meet with weather far more dan- 

 gerous and severe ; so much so, that many vessels, after striving 

 in vain for weeks here to make a passage into the Pacific, have 

 been obliged at last to bear away for the Cape of Good Hope, 

 and make their voyage across the Indian Ocean." 



(/i.) In an account of the Falkland Islands by WiUiam Clay- 

 ton, Esq. inserted in the Philosophical Transactions for 1776, 

 it is stated that " The prevailing winds are from the souih to 

 the west for two-thirds of the year, and in general, boisterous 

 and stormy."" 



(i.) " In the southern Atlantic, at the extremity of South 

 Africa, the winds are periodical, consonant during summer to 

 the south-east trade, which constantly blows on each side of the 

 promontory ; but conforming in winter with the western wind 

 that prevail at all times in the Southern Ocean. In other 

 words, the fluctuating boundary of the western current of air 

 touches upon the extremity of the African continent in winter, 

 and recedes from it in summer *." 



III. There is in all latitudes (a few tracts of limited extent 

 where local causes have a decided effect excepted) a jjredominance 

 of winds hlowing from the poles towards the equator over those 

 moving in the opposite direction ; but this predominance is not 

 as well marked and decided as that of the westerly over the 

 easterly winds between the latitudes of 30° and 60°. 



(a.) Daniell states, that in Great Britain, upon an average of 

 ten years, " the northerly winds are to the southerly as 192 to 



• Colebrooke on the climate of South Africa in Brande's Journal, vol. xiv. 

 p. 250. 



