342 PHYSICAL GEOGEAPHY OF THE SEA, AND ITS METEOROLOGY. 



double inclined plane, descending from the equator and from the 

 poles to the place of the tropical calm belts. 



663. Observations show that the mean weight of the barometer 

 winds in the southern i^ high southorn is mucli less (Plate I.) than it is in 

 'Snorll^ra hemi- Corresponding high northern latitudes ; consequently, 

 sphere. ^^6 should expoct that the polar-bound winds would 



be much more marked on the polar side of 40^ S., than they are 

 on the polar side of 40^ N. Accordingly, observations (Plate XY.) 

 show such to be the case ; and they moreover show that the polar- 

 bound winds of the southern are much fresher than those of the 

 northern hemisphere. 



;:4, 664. To appreciate the force and volume of these polar-bound 

 </?thTcf e^of (foid ^^^^^ ^ *^® southern hemisphere, it is necessary 

 Hope. ' that one should " run them down " in that waste of 



waters beyond the parallel of 40° S., where "the winds howl and 

 the seas roar." The billows there lift themselves up m long ridges 

 v/ith deep hollows between them. They run high and fast, tossing 

 their white caps aloft in the air, looking lilvc the green hills of a 

 rolling prairie capped with snow, and chasing each other in sport. 

 Still, their march is stately and then roll majestic. The scenery 

 among them is grand, and the Australian-bomid trader, after 

 doubling the Cape of Good Hope, finds herself followed for weeks 

 at a time by these magnificent rolling swells, driven and lashed by 

 the " brave west mnds " most fmiously. A sailor's bride, per- 

 forming this voyage with her gallant husband, thus alludes in her 

 " abstract log " to these rolling seas : " We had some magnificent 

 gales off the Cape, when the coloming of the waves, the transition 

 from gray to clear brilhant green, with the milky-white foam, 

 struck me as most exquisite. And then in rough weather the 

 moral picture is so fine, the calmness and acti^dty reqimed is such 

 an exhibition of the power of mind over the elements, that I 

 admired the sailors fully as much as the sea, and, of course, the 

 sailor in command most of all ; indeed, a sea voyage more than 

 fulfils my expectations." 



665. It appears, therefore, that the low barometer about the 

 Winds Mow from a poles and tlic low barometcr of the equator cause an 



high to a low bare- i i p • n n • n ,^^ i • - -, 



meter. mrusJi 01 Wind, and m eacn case tne rusmng wmd 



comes from the high and blows towards the loiv barometer ; that in 

 one hemisphere the calm belt of Capricorn, and in the other the 

 calm belt of Cancer, occupies the medial fine between the equatorial 

 and polar places of low barometer. 



