WINDS AND STORMS. 
413 
fevent point of the compass. With these weak breezes, ships are 
obliged to make the best of their way to the southward, through the 
aforesaid six degs. wherein it is reported some have been detained 
whole months for want of wind.” 
Instead, however, of being confined to these longitudes, it would 
appear that either a total cessation or a remission of the force of the 
trades is observed between the latitudes specified throughout nearly 
the whole extent of both the Atlantic and Pacific; the effect being, 
however, more distinctly marked and perceptible in the former than 
in the latter ocean. “The southern-trade wind being cooler in like 
latitudes than the northern, usually passes the equinoctial into the 
northern hemisphere. The northern-trade wind falls considerably 
short of it, as earlier attaining the maximum of heat. Between them 
is the region of variable winds, light airs, and calms, attended with 
frequent squalls and rains ; an uncertain wavy zone lying between 
the times of their influence. It is the tract in which the highest 
temperature prevails throughout the year; not at the equinoxes only, 
the sun being then vertical, but also when he is distant at the tropics. 
II. Between the latitudes of 30 and 60 degs. in both the northern 
and southern hemisphere, westerly winds predominate over those 
from the east in a ratio probably somewhat greater than that of three 
to two. 
Daniell states that, “ in Great Britain, on an average of ten years, 
westerly winds exceed the easterly in the proportion of 225 to 140.” 
The Meteorology of Cotte. in three Volumes 4to. specify in the 
last volume, that, generally, in the central and western parts of Eu¬ 
rope, and in some parts of Asia, westerly winds prevail. This is the 
case in most parts of France, at Amsterdam, Berne, Berlin, Stock¬ 
holm, St. Petersburg, Aleppo, Bassora, and Bagdad. Copenhagen 
is the only European capital of which an account is given where 
this is not the case. The wind is inclined to west at Paris, 
Young’s Philosophy, Vol. 2, p. 255. See also Annals of Philoso¬ 
phy, for July, 1822, where it is stated that, at St. 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.” The 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 . 
Westerly winds predominate over those from the east quarter 
within the limits of the United States. See the different meteoro¬ 
logical tables furnished for publication in the former numbers of this 
