THE WINDS OF THE OCEAN 



( Continued) 



IN dealing, however casually, with the oceanic and 

 atmospheric phenomena of the Indian Ocean, it has 

 ever to be borne in mind how radically it differs from 

 the other two great water spaces of the world, the 

 Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. They are both open to 

 the frigid influences of both poles, which, whether we 

 are thinking of water currents or air circulation, are 

 quite sufficient to account for the regularity of their 

 systems. But the Indian Ocean is open only to the 

 Antarctic ; at its northern extremity it is bounded 

 by tropical lands, superheated by the fervent sun, 

 except where the mighty mountain chains soar sky- 

 ward and are clothed in eternal snow, these regions 

 being but a tiny portion of the whole. This being 

 the case, it needs no amount of scientific education 

 scarcely any, in fact, beyond the exercise of ordinary 

 common- sense to perceive how entirely different from, 

 and how immensely more complicated than, the wind 

 and current systems of the other oceans those of the 

 Indian Ocean must be. 



First of all, consider our old and steadfast friend, 

 the South-East TradeiWind. Compared with its extent 

 in the other oceans, it is here very much limited ; 

 but yet, remembering the peculiarity of the Indian 



M 



