THE WINDS OF THE OCEAN 59 



comfortable navigation; for here, between the edge 

 of the Trade Wind and the westerlies, will be found 

 all the sailor most heartily desires to avoid. Indeed, 

 close to the South American coast the squalls are so 

 heavy and lasting as almost to deserve the name of 

 small hurricanes, while the suddenness of their on- 

 coming is not the least of the perils they present to 

 the seaman. Disaster here awaits the careless mariner, 

 coming almost out of a blue sky ; security is only to 

 be purchased by constant vigilance. It is, as it were, 

 the preliminary schooling for the mariner who is 

 about to face the great southern sea in all its stern 

 weather conditions after the somewhat enervating 

 luxuriousness of the South-East Trade. Yet this 

 unpleasant region has its compensating advantages. 

 Calms are rare, and irregular though the winds may 

 be, the skilful seaman will so utilize them that he 

 will soon get his ship far enough south to catch the 

 first push of the brave west winds of the southern 

 hemisphere. 



And now we come to what is, perhaps, the most 

 wonderful wind in the world, or, more properly, on 

 the earth's surface. A wind that sweeps, with scarcely 

 a break, right round the globe. A wind that, in my 

 own small experience, has enabled a ship to run five 

 thousand miles at an average rate of twelve knots an 

 hour, a ship that is propelled solely by the wind. A 

 wind so steady, both in force and direction, as to 

 require scarcely any trimming of the yards for a 

 week at a time, but withal so fierce, so strong, that 

 everything aloft needs to be of the best, and the 

 courage of the master correspondingly high to take 

 full advantage of it. A splendid wind for a strong 



