158 OBSEEVATIONS ON THE WINDS. 



of Panama Bay. This feature will be further dilated on when we come tc 

 the Section on Currents. 



(83.) These South, S.S.W,, and S.W. winds prevail, according to Maury's 

 Pilot Charts, chiefly during the months of July, August, September, and 

 October, and are then felt as far to the Westward as 35° or 40° W., be- 

 tween the parallels of 5° and 8° N. In the Western part of this area they 

 diminish in frequency as the sun proceeds to the South, and are scarcely 

 felt in the North Atlantic during the months of December, January, and 

 February. The chances of encountering this adverse wind must have an 

 important bearing on the choice of a route for crossing the Equator duinng 

 these months, but we leave this subject to be discussed under the heading 

 of Crossing the Equator, in the chapter on Passages given hereafter. 

 Between December and April, which is the season most visited by calms, 

 the wind has still a Southern tendency; but, during the season of the 

 Monsoon, the calms are at a minimum near the coast. It is difficult to 

 explain in words the relative duration, force, or frequency of the winds in 

 this changeable locality, without an appeal to the chart. The reader is 

 referred to those illustrating the Winds of the region between 20° N. and 

 10° S., and to the chart of the North Atlantic Ocean, in four sheets, before 

 alluded to (48). 



(84.) In the Gulf of Guinea, as far North as Cape Palmas, the prevail- 

 ing winds are S.W. and Southerly ; between Cape Palmas and Cape Eoxo, 

 S.W. winds prevail between June and September, and N.E. winds during 

 the remainder of the year. In the latitude of Sierra Leone, this S.W. 

 wind extends to long. 32° W. in the middle of the Northern summer. 



(85.) The following remarks, by the late Captain Midgley, who had great 

 experience on the African Coast, will be found of service in explaining the 

 character of the winds and seasons : — 



I will here offer a few remarks on the general variable winds and weather 

 which prevail between the parallels of 4° and 10° N., and the meridians of 

 18° and 25° W., or between the N.E. and S.E. Trade Winds. 



The winds generally incline from the Southward, between the Trades, 

 and few vessels pass from one Trade Wind to the other without meeting 

 with very unpleasant weather, in the shape of calms, light baffling winds, 

 squalls, and rain, particularly when the sun is much to the Northward. 



In June, July, and August, heavy squalls seem to prevail from the S.W., 

 with a great deal of rain, and the wind often blows hard from this quarter 

 for several hours together, and then falls calm, leaving a heavy and confused 

 short sea, which causes a vessel to labour and strain more than she would 

 do in a gale of wind. 



When the sun is far to the Southward, the weather is comparatively fine, 

 with light Southerly and S.E. winds, occasionally, however, interrupted by 

 squalls and rain ; and the calms are of shorter duration, owing, probably, 

 to the limited breadth of the space between the Trade Winds at this season. 



In this part of the ocean, when much lightning is seen in a heavy dense 

 cloud, in any quarter of the compass, the wind may be expected to come 

 out suddenly from that quarter, especially if there is any rain, even though 

 the wind may be blowing at the same time with moderate force from an 

 opposite quartei. Forked or chain lightning is the almost sure fore- 



