Proximate Causes of certain Winds and Storjns. 251 



Petersburg, from 1772 to 1792, to which period, with the addition 

 of 1818 and 1819, the observations are confined, " the west wind 

 prevailed the most, and the south wind the least J^ Tlie numbers 

 expressing the ratios of the winds from the different quarters are not 

 given, except for the year 1818, when the westerly winds were to 

 the easterly as 178 to 111; 



(c.) Westerly winds predominate over those from the east quarter 

 within the hmits of the United States. See the different meteoro- 

 logical tables furnished for publication in the former numbers of this 

 Journal, .by Messrs. Beck, Field, Hildreth, Hitchcock, and espe- 

 cially the abstract of the meteorological registers kept at the several 

 military posts of the United States, drawn up by Dr. Lovell, and in- 

 serted in the 12th volume, page 153, where the westerly are to the 

 easterly winds, for a term of four years, in the ratio of 12.59 to 9.63. 



(d.) That west and south-west winds prevail in that part of the 

 Atlantic Ocean which lies beyond the northern limit of the trade 

 winds, is so well known that quotations in proof of it can hardly be 

 necessary. (See Bowditch's Navigation.) " Have we not reason to 

 believe that the almost constantly prevailing west and south-west 

 winds which cause the voyage from New York or Philadelphia to 

 England, to be called, down, and from England back, up, as well as 

 that which blows at the top of the Peak, are the upper equatorial cur- 

 rent which has here descended, to skim the surface of the ocean. "'^ 



(e.) Commodore Krusenstern, as quoted by Wallenstein in the 

 Boston Journal of Philosophy, Vol. iii, p. 282, states that " in the 

 Pacific Ocean from latitude 30° to the pole, the variable winds are 

 generally from the north east and south west." 



(/.) The following statements are from Encyclopedias and other 

 compilations. During a term of sixteen years the westerly were to 

 the easterly winds in Russia, as 172 to 106. East winds prevail in 

 Germany. West winds are most frequent on the N. E. coast of 

 Asia. In Nova Scotia north west, and at Hudson's Bay west winds 

 blow for three fourths of the year. 



(g.) Our information respecting the winds of the southern hemis- 

 phere is less ample. Cape Horn (lat. 56°,) has long been infamous 

 amongst navigators for the violent westerly gales that prevail there, 

 rendering it sometimes almost impossible to sail round from the At- 

 lantic into the Pacific. (See Stewart's Journal.) "The prevailing 

 winds of this region are heavy gales from the west, the direct course 



* Von Buch, on the climate of the Canary Islands, in Jameson's Journal. 



