EED FOGS AND SEA BKEEZES. 139 



the trade-wind undergoes after it has come ^Yithin the archipelago 

 —and, finally, to its abatement as it approaches the equator. The 

 causes which produce the land breezes thus appear collectively 

 not sufficiently powerful to be able to turn back a strong trade- 

 wind in the ocean." 



322. Seamen tell us of ^' red fogs " which they sometimes en- 

 Eed fogs in the Medi- counter, especially in the yicinity of the Cape de 

 tcrratican. YeiS. Islauds. Li othcr parts of the sea also they 

 meet showers of dust. What these showers precipitate in the 

 Mediterranean is called "sirocco dust," and in other parts " Afiican 

 dust,"* because the w^inds which accompany them are supposed to 

 €ome from the Sii'occo desert, or some other parched land of the con- 

 tinent of Africa. It is of a brick-red or cinnamon colour, and it some- 

 times comes down in such quantities as to obscure the sun, darken 

 the horizon, and cover the sails and rigging with a thick coating 

 of dust, though the vessel may be hundreds of miles from the land. 



323. Dr. Clymer, Flest-suj-geon of the African squadron, reports 

 Red fogs near the a red fog which was encountcred in February, 1856, 

 equator. I^y ^j^g U. S. ship Jamcstown. " We were," says 

 he, "immersed in the dust-fog six days, entering it abruptly on 

 the night of the 9th of February, in lat. 7^ 30' N., and long. 15^ 

 W., and emerging from it (and at the same time from the zone of 

 the equatorial cahns into the north-east trades) on the 15th instant, 

 in lat. 9° N., and long. 19° W. With these winds we beat to 

 Porto Praya (in lat. 14° 54' N., and long. 23° 30' W.), crossing a 

 ^outh-west cm-rent of nearly a mile an hour, arriving at Porto Praya 

 on the 22nd of February. The red dust settled thickly on the sails, 

 rigging, spars, and decks, from which it was easily collected. It 

 was an impalpable powder, of a brick-dust or cinnamon colour. 

 The atmosphere was so dusky that we could not have seen a ship at 

 inidday beyond a quarter of a mile."t 



324. Now the patient reader, who has had the heart to follow 

 Putting tallies on me in a preceding chapter (lY.) around with "the 

 the wind. WTiid in his circuits," will perceive that evidence in 

 detail is 5*et wanting to establish it as a fact that the north-east and 

 south-east trades, after meeting and rising up in the equatorial 

 ■calms, do cross over and take the paths represented by K S and 

 F G, Plate I. Statements, and reasons, and arguments enough 

 have already been made and adduced (§ 288) to make it highly 



* Prof. Ehrenl)er2: calls it "Sea-dnst." 



t See Sailing Directions, 8th ed., vol. ii., p. 377. 



