CONTEST OF OPPOSING WINDS. 



269 



towards the northern pole gain the victory, on an average, over the 

 opposing winds. 



As the atmospheric currents coming from the equator bend natur- 

 ally towards the east, it follows that in the northern hemisphere 

 most of the winds blow from the west. This is what we observe in 

 North America, as well as in England. On the Atlantic coasts of 

 France, the proportion between the winds which balance themselves 

 around the western wind, and those which blow from directly con- 

 trary points of the horizon, is about three to two. The proportion 

 would be much more favourable to the former if the chain of the 

 Pyrenees, erected like a high barrier at the south of France, did not 

 modify the direction of the atmospheric currents, and force them to 

 make a detour by the Bay of Biscaj^, to bend again towards the east. 

 At Cherbourg, in the open Channel, the difference between the winds 



Fig. 109.— Map showing the general direction of winds in France. 



