50 OUR HERITAGE THE SEA 



imperfect astonomical knowledge it was the great 

 thing to get hold of the land and sweep along it ; the 

 sailor having plenty of time, delays were not con- 

 sidered as comparable with the sense of security which 

 the knowledge of the proximity of terra firma con- 

 ferred. Our later wisdom has shown us that modifica- 

 tions of these great air currents are always to be found 

 according to the relative position of the land and the 

 season of the year, meaning the relative position of 

 the sun above, and consequently the incidence of his 

 heat and its rarefaction of the air, and so we have 

 borrowed a Persian word and corrupted it to "mon- 

 soon," meaning " season." This word we have applied 

 to those modified Trade Winds near the land which 

 exhibit many marked variations from their parent 

 atmospheric stream. 



To go into these seasonal variations of the prevalent 

 winds of the Trades would be to impart perplexity to 

 what I wish to render simple, namely, the great steady 

 flow of air from the north-east ; and yet I cannot help 

 pointing out again that, in considering the great 

 movements of the air and sea currents, steadiness 

 must always be held a relative term, and what we are 

 bound to term complexity in view of our many obser- 

 vations doubtless resolves itself in the great scheme 

 of the universe into one harmonious whole, obeying 

 one universal law. What that law is belongs to 

 quite another discussion, and, being quite unable to 

 make any pronouncement upon it, I say nothing. 

 Now, keeping still to the North Atlantic, as being the 

 home of latter-day navigation, we come to the great 

 west winds, the prevalent wind, which since the early 

 days of North Atlantic navigation has been made use 



