664 PASSAGES OVER THE ATLANTIC. 



longer than it now is. Individual passages coming will, perhaps, not be 

 made so quickly as they have been, but, on the average, trips will be 

 shortened." 



Admiral FitzEoy also devoted some attention to this subject, and made 

 the following remarks, regarding Maury's " Lanes for Steamers," in his 

 " Meteorological Papers," 1858. 



" If steamers could always steer direct courses, being full-powered, and 

 not liable to be headed off in occasional heavy seas, such an arrangement 

 might be advantageous ; but as it is otherwise, and as screw (auxiliary or 

 mixed) ships sail while steaming, they camiot conveniently keep to pre- 

 scribed " Lanes," however desirable it might otherwise seem. 



" However, as the traffic increases between Europe and America, some 

 special arrangement may be required, even more urgently than now ; in 

 which case it might perhaps be found practicable to consider an imaginary 

 line, from lat. 50° and long. 20° to the crossing of 45° N. and 55° W., the 

 " line of separation," Northward of which should go all vessels bound to 

 the "Westward, and South of it all those heading to the Eastward." As 

 will be seen on pages 557 — 559, an arrangement has now actually been 

 adopted to carry out this idea. 



Normal Tracks for Steamers. 



On pages 171 — 177 and 196 — 198, we have given some extracts from 

 an essay by Herr von W. von Freeden, Director of the Hamburg Meteor- 

 ological Office, on the "Winds, &c., along the Tracks of the North German 

 Lloyd steamers. "What is there given refers to the Winds ; and, as an 

 application of that investigation, we give the following Tables from the 

 same work, for the normal tracks for each month of the year, with Herr 

 von Freeden's remarks on the same. 



It will be seen that the proposed tracks simply contain the latitude in 

 which every tenth meridian should be crossed in the various months, as 

 well as the true course, and distance in nautical miles, from one point of 

 crossing to the next. In all cases where the routes are variable, 330 

 miles have been entered as the distance to be run from the Needles to 

 10° W., and 183 miles from 70° "W. to Sandy Hook. Any sUght difference 

 which may have been caused by crossing these meridians on other than 

 the fixed latitudes of 60° and 40 J° N. has been considered to be of no 

 importance. 



