SEA ROUTES, CALM BELTS, AND VARIABLE WIOT)S. 347 



Once wandering over the ocean, he begins to be impressed by the 

 grand natural tableau around him with feelings deep and abiding. 

 The most splendid forecastle is lost in the viewless surface, and 

 brings home to us the knowledge of our nothingness ; the greatest 

 ship is a plaything for the billows, and the slender keel seems 

 to threaten om' existence every moment. But when the eye of 

 the mind is permitted to wander through space and into the depths 

 of the ocean, and is able to form a conception of Infinity and of 

 Omnipotence, then it knows no danger ; it is elevated — it compre- 

 hends itself. The distances of the heavenly bodies are correctly 

 estimated; and, enhghtened by astronomy, with the aid of the 

 art of navigation, of which Mamy's Wind and Current Charts 

 form an important part, the shipmaster marks out his way over 

 the ocean just as secm^ely as any one can over an extended heath. 

 He dhects his course towards the Caj^e Yerd Islands, and is 

 carried there by the lively trade-wind. Yet beyond the islands, 

 sooner or later, according to the month, the clear skies begin to 

 be clouded, the trade-wind abates and becomes unsteady, the 

 clouds heap up, the thunder is heard, heavy rains fall ; finally, the 

 stilhiess is death-like, and we have entered the belt of calms. This 

 Mt moves towards the north from May to September. It is a re- 

 markable phenomenon that the annual movements of the trades 

 and calm belts from south to north, and back again, do not dii'ectly 

 follow the smi in its declination, but appear to wait until the tem- 

 perature of the sea water puts it in motion. If a ship which has 

 come into the belt of calms between May and September could 

 lie still in the place where it came mto this belt — cast anchor, for 

 example — then it would perceive a turning of the monsoon or of 

 the trade-^ond. It would see the belt of calms draw away to the 

 north, and afterwards get the south-west monsoon, or, standing 

 more westerly, perhaps the south-east trade. On the contrary, 

 later than September, this ship lying at anchor will see the north- 

 east gradually awake. The belt of calms then moves towards the 

 south, and removes from the ship, wliich remains there anchored on 

 the north side."* 



676. The investigations that have taken place at the Observa- 

 The influence of the torv show that the influence of the land upon the 



land upon the winds it,- n n • t i • • 



of the sea. normal dn^ections oi the wmd at sea is an immense 



* Natuuikundige Besclirijving der zeeen, door M. F. Maury, LL.D., Luitenant 

 der Nord-Amerikaansche Marine, vertaald door M. H. Jansen, Luitenant der Zee. 

 (Bijdrage.) Dordrecht, P. K. Braat. 1855. 



