86 SAILING SHIPS IN THE TRADES. 



the trades, can often stand on upon their course, 

 making from 5 to 6 knots an hour, under ordinary 

 circumstances, for many days together, without perhaps 

 once having to call upon the watch to trim a sail. 

 We have seen this done ourselves ; and for those who 

 can enjoy life at sea, this portion of the voyage is 

 generally most agreeable. As a rule, it is a region 

 of fine weather. The sun is, of course, very powerful 

 by day, rendering good awnings a necessity for comfort, 

 but the temperature of the nights, with their soft balmy 

 breezes, beneath the usually almost cloudless canopy 

 of a brilliantly starlit sky, is most delicious. And the 

 experienced traveller, about to proceed upon an ocean 

 voyage, will not forget when engaging his cabin, to 

 see that its port opens towards the eastward, so as 

 to obtain the full benefit of these refreshing breezes 

 that is to say, when outward bound from England it 

 should be on the port side, and on the homeward 

 voyage on the starboard side. We call attention to 

 this, because the guide books for passengers proceed- 

 ing to India via the Suez Canal and Red Sea, give 

 opposite advice, because the winds are deflected 

 there from local causes; our remarks here therefore 

 are to be understood as applying to ocean voyages 

 only. 



It is obvious that near the equator the trade winds 

 must meet. Here, therefore, we find a region of calms 

 and rains prevails, known among sailors as " The 

 Doldrums," which separate the two systems of trade 

 winds. It is calm, because these winds, as it were, 

 neutralize each other in meeting; it is a region of rains, 

 because in doing so an upcast current of heated and 

 moisture-laden atmosphere is created, whose aqueous 



