The Sailing Ship and The Panama Canal 173 



Winds, Calms, and Sailing Routes, November-April 



roughly with the bottom of the trough 

 which separates the high-pressure belts, 

 lies a region known among seamen as 

 the ' ' Doldrums, ' ' characterized by moist, 

 cloudy weather, absence of wind, and 

 abundance of rain. The width of this 

 region varies — at some points wide, at 

 others narrow. In that portion of the 

 North Pacific included between the 

 American coast and the meridian of 1 20 

 W. it reaches a maximum, extending in 

 latitude from a point one or two degrees 

 north of the equator to Cape San Lucas, 

 the southern extremity of Lower Califor- 

 nia. Throughout this whole region the 

 barometric pressure is below the average 

 and extremely uniform, ranging from 

 29.85 inches during the northern sum- 

 mer to 29 95 inches during the northern 

 winter. Here, accordingly, barometric 

 gradients are absent, the winds sink to 

 stagnation, and calms prevail. 



A knowledge of the general character 

 of the winds of this region may be gath- 

 ered from the following diagrams, the 

 first holding for the northern summer, 

 (May-October) and the second for the 

 northern winter. The figures in the 

 center of each five-degree square show 

 the percentage of the time (number of 

 hours in each hundred) during which 

 calms or light variable airs may be ex- 

 pected to prevail, the length of the ar- 

 row in each quadrant, the percentage of 

 the whole time during which the wind 

 may be expected to blow from some 

 point in that quadrant. The figures in 

 the low T er left hand corner give for each 

 square the total number of observations 

 considered. No attempt is made to 

 show the average force of the wind, but 

 it may in general be stated that for the 

 entire area it does not exceed 3 on the 

 Beaufort scale, corresponding to a ve- 



