356 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SKA, AND ITS METEOROLOGY. 



the upper regions, from the equatorial side, where the cross sec- 

 tion between any two given meridians is the larger ; and this 

 upper current, while on its way from the equator, is continually 

 parting with the heat which it received at and near the surface, 

 and which caused it to rise under the equatorial cloud-ring. In 

 this process it is gradually contracted, thus causing the upper 

 surfiice of the air to be a sort of double inclined plane, descending 

 from the equator and from the poles to the place of the tropical 

 calm belts. 



0G3. Winds in the southern stronger than winds in the northern 

 ^ewisp/iere.— Obsei-vations show that the mean weight ^ of the 

 barometer in high southern is much less (Plate I.) than it is in 

 corresponding high northern latitudes ; consequently, we should 

 expect 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 XV.) 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. 



6G4. The waves and gales off the Cape of Good Hope.—To appre- 

 ciate the force and volume of these polar-bound winds in the 

 southern hemisphere, it is necessary 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 in long ridges with deep hollows between 

 them. They run high and fast, tossing their white caps aloft in 

 -the air, looking like the green hills of a rolling prairie capped 

 with snow, and chasing each other in sport. Still, their march 

 is stately and their roll majestic. The scenery among them is 

 grand, and the Australian-bound 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 winds" most furiously. 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 mag- 

 nificent gales ofi" the Cape, when the colouring of the waves, the 

 transition from gray to clear brilliant 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 activity 

 required is such an exhibition of the power of mind over the 

 elements, that I admired the sailors fully as much as the sea, 



