252 Proximate causes of certain Winds and Storms. 



to be steered in passing the cape, and ships are often detained by 

 them three times the period we have been, (twenty one days,) and 

 meet with weather far more dangerous and severe ; so much so, tliat 

 many vessels, after striving in vain for weeks here to make a passage 

 into the Pacific, have been obliged at last to bear away for the Cape 

 of Good Hope, and make their voyage across the Indian Ocean." 



(A.) In an account of the Falkland Islands by William Clayton, 

 Esq. inserted in the Philosophical Transactions for 1776, it is stated 

 that "The prevailing winds are from the south to the west for two 

 thirds of the year, and in general, boisterous and stormy." 



(i.) " In the southern Atlantic, at the extremity of South Africa, 

 the winds are periodical, consonant during summer to the south east 

 trade, which constantly blows on each side of the promontory ; but 

 conforming in winter with the western wind that prevails at all times 

 in the Southern Ocean. In other words, the fluctuating boundary of 

 the western current of air touches upon the extremity of the African 

 continent in winter, and recedes from it in summer."* 



III. There is in all latitudes [a few tracts of limited extent where 

 local causes have a decided effect excepted,) a predominance of winds 

 blowing f-om the poles towards the equator, over those moving in the 

 opposite direction — but this predominance is not as well marked and 

 decided as that of the westerly over the easterly winds, between the 

 latitudes of 30° and 60 ^ 



(a.) Daniell states that in Great Britain, upon an average of ten 

 years, "the northerly winds are to the southerly as 192 to 173," and 

 that " in the central parts of Europe the northern winds are much 

 more regular; and there especially in summer, the Etesian breeze con- 

 stantly prevails." 



(6.) Cotte's tables do not indicate the predominance and perma- 

 nence of northerly winds in that quarter of the world which is as- 

 serted by Daniell. Of the capital cities heretofore mentioned, 

 Aleppo, Bassora, Berne, Petersburg and Stockholm, appear to have 

 an excess of northerly winds ; Amsterdam, Berlin and Copenhagen 

 of southerly, whilst at Bagdad and Paris the excess on either side is 

 inconsiderable. These tables were however, published in 1788, af- 

 ter the work to which they are attached, had been in press for some 

 years ; the information they afford respecting Germany is very mea- 

 gre, whilst the subject of meteorology appears to have excited an 

 extraordinary degree of interest in that country between the years 



* Colebrooke on the climate of South Africa, iu Brande's Journal, Vol. xiv, p. 250. 



