128 OBSEEVATIONS ON THE WINDS. 



winter months the usual track of storms is Eastward across the Northern 

 United States and Canada, and then about E.N.E. over the Atlantic, 

 where they are followed by severe and long-co-ntinued Westerly gales. 

 Probably no Ice will be encountered South of the latitude of Cape Eace. 

 Fog will be less frequent, owing to prevaiHng North- Westerly (off-shore) 

 winds. Strong Northers are hkely to occur in the Gulf of Mexico. 



December. — The region of frequent and severe storms over the North 

 Atlantic this month Hes almost entirely to the Northward of a Une from 

 Bermuda to the Azores, the great pathway of winter storms being a belt 

 about 500 miles wide stretching E.N.E. from Newfoundland toward and 

 to the Northward of the British Isles. Very heavy Westerly gales follow 

 the storms which move rapidly Eastward along this belt. Danger from 

 Fog, however, is at its minimum, as the warm water of the Gulf Stream 

 is well to the Southward, and dry off-shore winds prevail on the Grand 

 Banks, and off the coast of Nova Scotia. Little or no Ice will be encoun- 

 tered. In the Gulf of Mexico, Northers become more frequent. The N.E. 

 Trades are fresh and steady, sometimes interrupted in the Caribbean Sea 

 by strong Northerly gales. 



4.— THE NORTH-EAST TRADE WIND. 



(47.) The regions of the Trade Winds occupy nearly one-hair of the 

 entire surface of the globe. From their constancy and regularity they form 

 by far the most important part of the circulatory system of the atmosphere, 

 although generally their strength is inferior to many of those smaller but 

 compensating currents which are experienced in extra-Tropical regions. 



(48.) The primary source from which the ensuing statistics of the Winds 

 are chiefly derived is the extensive collection of observations recorded in 

 the Pilot Charts of Lieutenant M. F. Maury, U.S.N., published in 1849. 

 On our Chart of the North Atlantic Ocean, in four sheets, to which this 

 work especially refers, these wind records are also arranged in a simple 

 and comprehensive graphic form. In 1876 the Meteorological Office issued 

 an analysis of the Meteorology of the Equatorial Eegion of the Atlantic, 

 between lat. 20° N. and 10° S., and long. 10° to 40° W. This elaborate 

 work, produced by Captain Toynbee, F.E.A.S., F.E.G.S., is chiefly derived 

 from data collected by the late Admiral FitzEoy, and may be said to super- 

 sede the above-mentioned work of Lieutenant Maury, or that part of it 

 which relates to the crossing of the Equator. We give farther on, Captain 

 Toynbee's remarks on the Winds observed in this region. 



(49.) The North-East Trade Wind blows over the Tropical region be- 

 tween lat. 36° N. and the Equator, seldom, however, reaching these ex- 

 tremes, -o When uninterrupted by gales or hurricanes, caused by the dis- 

 turbing influences of land or rain, it is a fair weather region which procured 

 for it the term of " The Lady's Gulf," by the old Spaniards. From the 

 difference 0-055 inch in the observed mean barometric pressure by the 

 Dutch in the N.E. and S.E. Trades, between the parallels of 5° and 20"^, 



