74 OUR HERITAGE THE SEA 



variations of the trio, bounded as it is, within reason- 

 able limits, by America and Africa on the west and 

 east in the southern hemisphere, America and Europe 

 in the northern hemisphere, and on the north the 

 frigid continent. All these exert their influence upon 

 the winds, and through them the destiny of the nations 

 adjacent. On the other side of Africa the abnormal 

 conditions resulting from a hemming-in of the great 

 Indian Ocean by the torrid northern land has, as we 

 have seen, given it the special character of the mon- 

 soons varied by hurricanes, instead of the North-East 

 Trades, as in the other oceans its South-East Trades 

 severely disturbed by hurricanes and encroaching 

 monsoons. But the Pacific Ocean might reasonably 

 be expected to bear, in its wind system, a very close 

 analogy to the Atlantic, and, speaking generally, it 

 does do so. That is, it has its North-East and South- 

 East Trades and its anti-Trades, or passage winds, 

 north and south of them, while they are divided by 

 the usual belt of equatorial doldrums to the north of 

 the Equator. 



But when we come to particulars, we find very wide 

 divergences between the winds of the two oceans, and 

 as we study the matter more closely, we see that it 

 was unwise to have expected too much similarity 

 between them, the conditions being so very different. 

 In the first place, looking northward into the South 

 Pacific, we see on the west, instead of the great 

 American continent extending almost down to the 

 frigid zone and protecting the enclosed ocean from 

 the boisterous westerly gales, only the great Australian 

 island and the small New Zealand group, which present 

 no practical barrier to the fierce sweep of the brave 



