460 
WINDS AND STORMS. 
the southerly as 133 to 119, the westerly were to the easterly as 133 
to 92, and that in the Mediterranean the north wind blows for nearly 
three fourths of the year. In that part of the Atlantic Ocean lying 
beyond the northern limit of the trade winds, between the United 
States and Europe, it appears that southerly winds predominate. 
Their cause is probably analogous to that of the Gulf Stream. The 
meteorological registers of Messrs. Field, Olmsted, and Wallenstein 
shew an excess of northerly winds; others, as those of Drs. Beck, 
Lovell, and probably Hildreth, an excess of southerly winds; but in 
general the excess of the southerly over the northerly, where it obtains, 
is less than that of the westerly over the easterly. Thus, in the ab¬ 
stract of Dr. Lovell, the westerly winds are to the easterly as 12.59 
to 9.63, the southerly to the northerly as 12.59 to 1 1.60. On the 
whole, there can be little room for doubt that the winds from the north 
predominate over those from the south within the limits of the United 
States. This method of estimating the amount of wind in any di¬ 
rection by the number of days it blows from that point, is exceed¬ 
ingly defective, and may (as where the wind is commonly violent in 
one direction and gentle in another, and the force with which it blow s 
is altogether neglected), lead to the most erroneous results. This 
happens to be the case in this country. Our south-west winds pre¬ 
vail chiefly in the summer season, they are mild breezes subsiding 
often into a calm, which continues during a considerable part of the 
day. Our north-west winds, on the other hand, sweep over the con¬ 
tinent day and night with a constancy and velocity which renders it 
necessary to make a considerable allowance when we are estimating 
* O 
the amount of movement in the atmosphere by the time during which 
it occurs. The north winds (los nortes), which are north-west winds, 
blow' in the Gulf of Mexico from the autumnal to the spring equinox. 
These north winds, hurricanes generally, remain for three or four 
days, and sometimes for ten or twelve.” 
If there be a predominance of either northerly or southerly winds 
in the North Pacific Ocean, it is not such as to have attracted the 
particular attention of navigators, “ On the north-west coast of 
America, from the straits of Behring to 30 clegs, of northern latitude, 
the winds are variable. Captain Cook found in March, in the 44th 
degree of latitude, a fresh and constant south-west, which continued 
until the beginning of summer, with the exception of a south-east, 
which lasted, however, only six hours; and La Perouse, Portlock, 
and Dixon did not experience the south winds in the summer. Ac¬ 
cording to Vancouver and the Spanish navigators, the north and 
north-west are the most prevailing. All this, however, applies almost 
