THE WINDS OF THE OCEAN 73 



than that bestowed upon this, the greatest water space 

 in the world, the Pacific or Peaceful Ocean. If any 

 ocean deserved such a name it is the South Atlantic, 

 where from generation to generation since the dawn 

 of navigation broke, and for who knows how many 

 ages previous, the gentle wavelets have been unruffled 

 by anything more strenuous than a moderate breeze. 

 I speak feelingly, for of all the seas I have sailed 

 I know none so intimately as the Pacific, having spent 

 so many weary months in traversing it to and fro, not 

 bound anywhere, but just hunting for a section of its 

 native population, the great sperm whales. To give 

 it its just due I will freely admit that along the line in 

 that vast expanse of open sea extending from America 

 to Asia, no worse weather as regards winds may be 

 met with than in the Atlantic; but, indeed, that is 

 not saying much. When we come to consider the 

 enormous area between the line doldrums and the extra- 

 tropical region of the counter Trades, or westerlies, 

 as seamen prefer to call them, which in the South 

 Atlantic is so sacredly pacific, we do not find anything 

 like the same stability of weather in the South Pacific 

 that obtains in the South Atlantic. The awful hurri- 

 cane is fairly frequent, and the beneficent South-East 

 Trade Wind is unreliable, given to vagaries unaccount- 

 able, except upon the hypothesis that the predisposing 

 causes of Trade Winds, the superheated continents 

 adjacent, have less power by reason of their absence 

 on the west and their entirely different configuration 

 on the east. 



Each of the three great oceans of the world has a 

 character entirely its own. The Atlantic is, perhaps, 

 the most perfectly amenable to regular meteorological 



