TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION E. 273 



months, when the weather for w'eeks at a stretch leaves little 

 to be desired, the boisterous days being more commonly re- 

 served for the summer. This statement may appear strange 

 to the ears of those who have always been taught to believe 

 that Cape Horn possessed the monopoly of immense seas and 

 fearful weather ; but modern vessels and those of fifty years 

 ago make wonderfully different weather of that which they 

 encounter, and to that fact alone may be attributed the dif- 

 ferent reports of weather experienced in the same locality ; and, 

 if a comparison is instituted between the Pacific and Indian 

 Oceans as to which is the more boisterous of the two, the cozn- 

 parison is decidedly favourable to the first-mentioned one. 

 Still, interesting though the physical features of the two oceans 

 undoubtedly are, they must always be primarily regarded as 

 the highway of vessels, and their various peculiarities studied 

 with a view to simplifying as much as possible the difficulties 

 of navigation, and safeguarding vessels to tlieir destination, if 

 such be possible, by giving them the latest and best informa- 

 tion obtained of the route on which they travel. 



There is just one remark which must be made on the sub- 

 ject of special observations made by any exploring vessel in the 

 polar regions, and that is that for the year that she happens to 

 be there her observations may be perfect, but that the conditions 

 of one year are perhaps very different from those of another ; 

 therefore the necessity arises for series of observations extend- 

 ing over many years, if it is desired to obtain any general rules 

 or principles. For instance, the climate of England this year 

 is not a fair type of its usual weather, for if telegrams are to 

 be trusted it is worse than it has been for thirty years ; and 

 it would not be correct if it were assumed to be the usual 

 weather. Tlic data from which the deductions in this paper 

 are derived have all been collected during the past seven years. 



From the experience gained during that period of time^ 

 which has sufficed to traverse the route twenty times, it will 

 be assumed that the Indian Ocean does not offer any great 

 impediment to navigation inasmuch as icebergs are concerned. 

 It has been so long the fashion to select a comparatively low 

 latitude in which to run the easting down that the quantity of 

 ice reported has been small. Of course the adoption of a low 

 latitude has lengthened the passages, although perhaps they 

 may have been made with greater comfort to the ship's com- 

 panies ; but that is at least problematical, and, except in 

 the vicinity of the Cape of Good Hope and the islands to the 

 southward, which appear to be within the influence of an ice- 

 bearing current which has been deflected to the southward 

 and eastward from the Atlantic Ocean, a fairly-high latitude 

 niay be safely maintained, and Maury's remarks on the ad- 

 vantages of a high southern latitude if desirous of making a 

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