i 850-852. THE ANTARCTIC REGIONS, ETC. 453 



CHAPTER XXI. 



§ 850-878. — THE ANTARCTIC REGIONS AND THEIR CLIMA- 

 TOLOGY. 



850. During our investigations of the winds and currents, 

 rndications of a mild facts aud circumstanccs Lave been revealed whicli 



climate about the .,. , . ^ mtt 



south pole. indicate the existence of a mild climate — mild by 



comparison — within the antarctic circle. They plead most elo- 

 quently the cause of exploration there. The facts and circum- 

 stances which suggest mildness of climate about the south pole 

 are these : a low barometer, a high degree of aerial rarefaction, 

 and strong winds from the north. 



851. The winds were the first to whisper of this strange state 

 The story of the winds, of thiugs, aiid to intimate to lis that the antarctic 

 climates are very unlike the arctic for rigor and severity. In di- 

 viding the sea into wind-bands (§ 352) or longitudinal belts 5° of 

 latitude broad each, I excluded from the subjoined table observa- 

 tions from those parts of the sea, such as the North Indian Oceanj 

 the China Sea, and all those seas where monsoons prevail. The 

 object was to investigate the general movements of the atmosphere, 

 and therefore all regions which present exceptional cases to the 

 general law were excluded as above. The grouping was not car- 

 ried beyond 60° north and south, for the lack of observations on 

 the polar side of those parallels. The number of observations 

 thus remaining was 1,159,353. These were then divided simply 

 into two classes for each belt, viz., polar winds^ and equatorial 

 winds. They were then reduced to terms of a year, and the 

 average prevalence of each wind in days deduced therefrom, as 

 per Plate XV. and table on the next page. 



852. This table reveals a marked difference in the atmospher- 

 Thenuii belts, ical movcmcuts uorth, as compared with the atmos- 

 pherical movements south of the equator. The equatorial winds 

 of the northern hemisphere are in excess only between the par- 

 allels of 10° and 30° ; ^. e., they are dominant over a zone 20° 

 of latitude in breadth, while the equatorial winds of the southern 



♦ Polar winds blow toward the pole, equatorial toward tha equator. 



