282 APPENDIX. 



the investigations which Professor Chapman's interesting paper 

 suggests, observations upon the specific gravity of sea water be- 

 come still more interesting. It is to be hoped, therefore, that my 

 fellow-laborers at sea will not slight column 21 in the man-of-war 

 abstract log," — Maury's Sailing Directions, 7th ed., p. 857. 



H.— Page 224, ^ 479. 

 EFFECTS OF ISLANDS UPON THE TRADE WINDS. 



*' The islands, such as the Society and Sandwich, that stand 

 far away from any large extent of land, have a very singular but 

 marked effect upon the wind. They interfere with the trades 

 very often, and turn them back ; for westerly and equatorial 

 winds are common at both these groups, in their winter time. 

 Some hydrographers have taken those westerly winds of the So- 

 ciety Islands to be an extension of the monsoons of the Indian 

 Ocean. Not so : they are local, and do not extend a great way 

 either from the Sandwich or Society Islands. 



" That they are local about the former group, an examination 

 of sheet No. 5, Pilot Chart North Pacific, will instantly show. 



" It is a curious thing is this influence of islands in the trade- 

 wind region upon the winds in the Pacific. Every navigator who 

 has cruised in those parts of that ocean has often turned with 

 wonder and delight to admire the gorgeous piles of cumuli, heap- 

 ed up and arranged in the most delicate and exquisitely beautiful 

 masses that it is possible for fleecy matter to assume. Not only 

 are these piles found capping the hills among the islands, but they 

 are often seen to overhang the lowest islet of the tropics, and even 

 to stand above coral patches and hidden reefs, ' a cloud by day,' 

 to serve as a beacon to the lonely mariner out there at sea, and 

 to warn him of shoals and dangers which no lead nor seaman's 

 eye has ever seen or sounded out. 



'' These clouds, under favorable circumstances, may be seen 

 gathering above the low coral island, and performing their office 

 in preparing it for vegetation and fruitfulness in a very striking 

 manner. As they are condensed into showers, one fancies that 

 they are a sponge of the most exquisite and delicately elaborated 

 material, and that he can see, as they 'drop down their fatness,' the 

 invisible but bountiful hand aloft that is pressing and squeezing it 

 out." — Maury's Sailing Directions, 7th ed., p. 820, 



L— Page 248, <^ 541. 

 WHITENESS OF THE WATER. 



Capt. W. E. Kingman, of the American clipper ship the Shoot- 

 ing Star, reports in his last abstract log a remarkable w^hite patch. 



