THE ANTI-TRADES OE PASSAGE WINDS. 179 



locality in which we have the most interest here." ..." Drawing a 

 line N.E. from the Caribbean Sea clear of the Coast of Florida, it would 

 cut our track to New York between the meridians of 40° and 50° W. ; this 

 will be found to be the Western limit of the great S.W. Equatorial current; 

 this current of air from the S.W. touching the earth is now brought into 

 contact with the North wind flowing to the Southward, and the steady 

 flow of the two currents, upper and lower, is interrupted ; the Northerly 

 current in the latitude I have named will then have a course from nearly 

 due North, certainly not past N.N.B., the Southerly current of air will be 

 S.W., therefore, by coming into collision, an almost continuous Westerly 

 wind will blow between 40° W. and England." .... 



" Having accepted this theory, I determined to put it to a practical test, 

 when commanding the screw steamer Alp, in 1857. It so happened that 

 whilst making a passage from Havre to New York we fell in with a heavy 

 gale of wind from the Westward, and it occurred to me that the wind being 

 West I was in the hne of contact, so that if my theory were correct, the 

 more I steered to the Northward the more the wind would norther. We 

 were steering West, so I put the ship's head off to N.W., and set the fore 

 and aft sails ; the ship's way increased, and in twelve hours the wind 

 hauled sufficiently to the Northward to enable me to lay my course on the 

 starboard tack ; by attending to this we beat the Africa, one of our powerful 

 mail boats, a whole day. 



" Again, coming from New York, we often fall in with a S.W. gale, with 

 the weather bright and clear ; this will continue for one or two days, how 

 long depends upon the northing we are making ; if the ship is going due 

 East she may carry the S.W. wind right across the Atlantic ; if she is 

 making northing she wiU fall in with drizzling rain ; when this occurs, 

 look out, for the wind will fly round to N.W. suddenly. This has become 

 a saying with sailors navigating the Atlantic, and it is always so, for then 

 the ship is approaching the line of contact ; the S.W. wind being warm 

 and laden with moisture is coming into contact with the cold North wind, 

 condensation ensues, and rain is the consequence. After the shift to N.W. 

 we have squalls of hail ; finally, as the ship gets to the Northward, the 

 wind hauls to North, and we have fine clear weather. 



" This, as a rule, is a true explanation of the steady gales we meet with 

 in the Atlantic, which, in mid-ocean, last for six or seven days ; but this ia 

 not always the form which these two currents take, very often we meet with 

 rotary storms of smaU circumference. When steaming out to the West- 

 ward we often meet with these circlets, if I may so name them ; in them 

 we have the wind from all points of the compass during the twenty-four 

 hours, with rain and dirty weather, not blowing very hard, but still dis- 

 agreeable ; this may last three, four, or five days ; now these luotary storms 

 are all going on at a rapid rate to the Eastward, and finally strike our coast ; 

 they are occasioned by the opposing currents of air being of unequal force, 

 and would naturally resolve themselves into the rotary form. 



" It is a singular thing to note that this current of air very rarely touches 

 the Coast of Spain; the times in which they have a S.W. gale on the Coast 

 of Spain, South of Cape St. Vincent, during a year, might be counted on 

 your fingers. 



