though about to fall, but instead of falling it 

 sailed off toward the east as though a carrier 

 pigeon hurrying for a known and definite place 

 in the horizon. 



Some of the gulf-streams, hell-gates, whirl- 

 pools, rough channels, and dangerous tides in 

 the sea of air either are in fixed places or 

 adjust themselves to winds from a different 

 quarter so definitely that their location can be 

 told by considering them in connection with 

 the direction of the wind. Thus the sea of air 

 may be partly charted and the position of some 

 of its dangerous places, even in mountain-top 

 oceans, positively known. 



However, there are dangerous mountain-top 

 winds of one kind, or, more properly, numerous 

 local air-blasts, that are sometimes created 

 within these high winds, that do not appear to 

 have any habits. It would be easier to tell 

 where the next thunderbolt would fall than 

 where the next one of these would explode. One 

 of these might be called a cannon wind. An old 

 prospector, who had experienced countless high 

 winds among the crags, once stated that high, 



79 



