358 THE PHYSICAL GEOGKAPHY OF THE SEA. 



trades of tlie south are not so easily arrested in tlieir course, or 

 turned back in tlieir circuits, as are those of the north. Conse- 

 quently, moreover, we should not, either in the trades or the coun- 

 ter-trades of the southern hemisphere, look for as many calms as 

 in those of the northern systems. 



1009. Therefore, holding to this corollary, we may consider the 

 following as established facts in meteorology : 



That the S.E. trade-winds are stronger than the N.E. ; that the 

 IST.W. pas^ge winds — the counter-trades of the south — are stron- 

 ger and less liable to interruption in their circuits than the S.W., 

 the counter- trades of the north; that the atmospherical circula- 

 tion is more regular and brisk in the southern than it is in the 

 northern hemisphere ; and, to repeat : since the wind moves in its 

 circuits more briskly through the southern than it does through 

 the northern hemisphere, it consequ.ently has less time to tarry 

 or dally by the way in the south than in the north; hence the 

 corollary just stated. But observations also, as well as mathemat- 

 ically drawn inferences, show that calms are much less prevalent in 

 the southern hemisphere. For this observations are ample ; they 

 are grouped together by thousands and tens of thousands, both on 

 the Pilot and the Storm and Eain Charts. These charts have not 

 been completed for all parts of the ocean, but as far as they have 

 been constructed the facts they utter are in perfect agreement with 

 the terms of this corollary. 



1010. These premises being admitted we may ascend another 

 round on this ladder, and argue that, since the atmosphere moves 

 more briskly and in more constant streams through its general 

 channels of circulation in the southern than it does through them 

 in the northern hemisphere ; and that, since it is not arrested in 

 its courses by calms as often in the former as it is in the latter, 

 neither should it be turned back by the way, so as to blow in gales 

 from the direction opposite to that in which the general circulation 

 carries it. 



The atmosphere, in its movements along its regular channels of 

 circulation, may be likened, that in the southern hemisphere to a 

 f.ist railway train ; that of the northern to a slow. The slow train 

 may, when "steam is up," run as fast as the fast train, but it is not 

 obliged to get through so quick ; therefore, it may dally by the 

 way, stop, run back, and still be through in time. Not so the fast; 



