THE WINDS OF THE OCEAN 47 



treatise on meteorology, the statement of them will 

 suffice. 



Now, the North-East Trade, acting upon the surface 

 of the ocean perpetually, has also an enormous influence 

 upon the current, is, indeed, the main cause of the 

 great equatorial current which ever sets from east to 

 west ; but that will be considered later. What is now 

 to be thought of is the way in which this wonderfully 

 steady wind has affected the trade of the world. With- 

 out it Columbus would certainly never have dis- 

 covered America, and the amazing development of the 

 trade of the Old World with the new would have been 

 delayed for centuries, if not prevented altogether. 

 Those who have read descriptions of the epoch-making 

 voyage of the great Genoese will remember how terri- 

 fied the sailors became when the wind blew steadily 

 day after day in the same direction, favourable to the 

 course they wished to steer; for they naturally felt 

 how impossible it would be for them ever to return 

 against such a steadfast wind as that. They could not 

 possibly imagine any counter current of air that would 

 favour their return, and as they sailed farther and 

 farther from their native shore, they doubtless felt that 

 they had bidden it an eternal farewell. It would ill 

 become us in these latter days, when the self-sacrificing 

 labours of a host of patient observers have familiarized 

 us with the conditions obtaining over the whole of the 

 great waste of the deep, to smile at the fears of these 

 pioneers of Atlantic navigation. With a little effort of 

 the imagination we can place ourselves by their sides, 

 and, entering into their terrors, sympathize with them 

 to the full. 



But once the means of return had been discovered, 



