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ble chapter to their more particular consideration, and their connection with the monsoons and other winds which prevail in different parts of the globe. The results at which he has arrived are exhibited in a Chart of the Winds and their routes in every part of the ocean-the NorthEast Trades-the South-East Trades-the South-East and South-West Monsoonsthe North-East and South-West Monsoons-the prevailing Westerly Winds, and the routes and average passage of ships (in days) bound to different ports in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans. The Monsoons are those winds which blow during one half of the year from one direction, and during the other half from nearly an opposite direction. These winds are generally formed from trade-winds. When 66 a trade-wind is turned from its regular course, from one quadrant to another, or drawn in by overheated districts, it is regarded as a monsoon." When the monsoons have blown for five months, and become settled, both they and the trade-winds which they replace are called monsoons. M. Dove considers the S. W. monsoon as the S. E. trade-wind; and Lieutenant Jansen, that the N.W. monsoon is a similar deflection of the N.E. trade-wind. The monsoons are produced by the over-heated regions in Africa, Asia, and America; and their occurrence may always be known from the time when it is the hottest season in these localities.

The phenomena called the Changing of the Monsoons, is beautifully described by Lieutenant Jansen, and quoted by our author. Gusts of wind arise, and are followed by calms. Thunder-storms occur day and night. Water-spouts, often 200 yards high and 20 feet wide, but sometimes 700 yards high and 50 yards wide, are formed by clouds descending in a tunnel form, and appearing to lap the water with their black mouths. When the wind prevents their formation, wind or airspouts, more dangerous than water-spouts, shoot up like an arrow, and the sea makes vain attempts to keep them back. Lashed into fury, the sea marks with foam the path of the conflicting elements, and roars with the noise of its water-spouts.*

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The climates of the sea, discussed in Lieutenant Maury's fifteenth chapter, differ greatly from those of the land. At sea, March is the coldest and September the warmest month; whereas, on land, February is the coldest, and August the warmest. The reason of this is obvious. After winter, the solid dry land receives more heat from the sun in the day than it radiates at night, and hence it accumulates till it reaches its maximum in August. It is otherwise, however, with the sea. In it the surplus of summer heat is stored up to alleviate the severity of winter, and its waters increase in warmth for a month after the solid earth has begun to cool. On account of the great quantity of seasurface raised to a high temperature on the north side of the Equator, compared with that on the south side, the summer in the Northern is hotter than in the Southern Hemisphere. In the Atlantic this is undoubtedly the case; but in the Pacific observations are not sufficiently numerous to enable us to compare the temperatures of the two hemispheres in which it lies.

If we consider the ocean as a mass of water influenced only by heat and cold, it is obvious that it must be subject to certain surface movements different from those currents of which we have treated. An object, such as a floating bottle, set adrift at the Equator, and uninfluenced by the winds, would be carried to the fixed ice near the Poles, and would travel back by the same influences to the warm waters at the Equator. Lieutenant Maury has given an interesting map to illustrate the circulation of the ocean under the sole influences of heat and cold, and to indicate the routes by which the heated waters of the Torrid Zone escape to the regions of cold, and "the great channelways" by which the same waters return again to the Equator. According to the best information which Lieutenant Maury has obtained, the velocity of these heated and cooled currents is, at an average, only four knots a day, and rather less than more. The immense body of warm waters in the middle of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, which give birth to the drift currents, are regarded by our author as the

Atlantic, and extends from the Cape in a direct line to the Equator. The homeward-bound Indiaman avails himself of it, as the European-bound American does of the Gulf Stream.

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womb of the sea, teeming with organic | the sunshine, the clouds without rain, the life, so thickly distributed as to give day and night, with their heating and racrimson, brown, black, or white colors diating processes, are the cogs and notchto the waters which bear it." These col- ed wheels which compose it, and which, ored patches often extend as far as the amid all the jarrings of the elements, preeye can reach. One of these white spaces, serve in harmony the exquisite adapta23 miles long, resembled a plain covered tions of the ocean.* with snow. Its water was crowded with luminous worms and insects, some of the serpents" being six inches long. Other patches that are pink-colored contain welldefined animalcules. The color of the Red Sea is derived from a delicate kind of sea-weed, and that of the Yellow Sea from a similar cause.

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Under the head of Drift Currents, Lieutenant Maury describes a commotion in the water, called "Tide Rips," revealing a conflict of tides or currents. They are generally found near the equatorial calms, starting up without any wind, and moving along at the rate of 60 miles an hour with a roaring noise, as if they would dash over the frail bark, helplessly flapping its sails against the masts." To other unexplained movements of the sea, the name of Bores and Eagres has been given. The Bores of India, of the Bay of Fundy, and of the Amazon, are the most remarkable. They are tremulous tidal waves, which roll in periodically from the sea, engulfing deer, horse, and other wild beasts that frequent the beach. The name Eagre is given to the Bore of TsienTang river. It attains its greatest magnitude opposite to the city of Hangchau, one of the busiest in Asia; and when it appears, it is announced with loud shouts from the sailors, drowned in its noise of thunder. All work comes to a stand. A wall like one of chalk, or rather a cataract, 4 or 5 miles across and 30 feet high, advances with a velocity of 25 miles an hour. It passes up the river in an instant with diminishing velocity, occasionally reaching a point 80 miles from the city. The rise and fall of the wave is sometimes 40 feet at Hang-chau, and it is supposed to be produced by a peculiar configuration of the river and its estuary.

After describing these movements, and others equally inexplicable, our author rather fancifully regards them as "the pulsation of the great sea-heart, which may perhaps assist in giving circulation to its waters through the immense system of aqueous veins and arteries that run between the equatorial and polar regions." In the machinery which governs the sea,

VOL XLIV.-NO. IV.

There is no branch of the Geography of the Sea more interesting to the reader, or more important to the mariner, than that which treats of the rotary storms, and the hurricanes of the ocean. Our author treats of them in a very imperfect manner, and in a very brief chapter. It consists chiefly of a long extract from Lieutenant Jansen's work, in which no reference is made to the valuable labors of the late Mr. Redfieldt of New-York, of Professor James Espy of Washington, or of our distinguished countryman, Sir William Reid. The typhoons or white squalls of the China seas are furious gales of wind, arising from disturbances of the atmospherical equilibrium generated among the arid plains of Asia. Their influence extends to the China seas, which are included in the region of the monsoons of the Indian Ocean; and during the changes of these monsoons the typhoons and white squalls prevail.

The Cyclones of the Indian Ocean, or the Mauritius hurricanes, take place during the contest between the trade-wind and monsoon force, at the changing of the monsoon, and when neither force has gained the ascendency. At this period of the year the winds" seem to rage with a fury that would break up the very fount

*On his Chart exhibiting the sea-drift our author has also marked the most favorite places of resort for the right whale and the sperm whale, the former Cold water fish being more edible than those of occurring in cold, and the latter in warm water.

warm water, we see on the Chart the places which are most favored with good fish markets. "In the course of these investigations," says Lieutenant Zone is to the right whale as a sea of fire through Maury, "the discovery was made that the Torrid which he can not pass; that the right whale of the

Northern Hemisphere and that of the Southern are two different animals; and that the sperm whale has never been known to double the Cape of Good Hope -He doubles Cape Horn."

In the Drift and Whale Chart our author has

marked a large space between New-Zealand and the southern part of America as a desolate region, in which mariners find few signs of life in sea or air. The meridian of 120° west longitude, and the parallel of 45° south latitude, pass through its middle point. Mr. Redfield's name is only once referred to in a note.

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ains of the deep."* The West-India hur- | and published various important works on ricanes take place when the monsoons are the storms of the West-Indies and the at their height. The trade-wind and coasts of the United States.* Colonel monsoon forces now pull in opposite di- Cappert had, so early as 1801, attempted rections, and most powerful revulsions of to show, that the hurricanes of the East the atmosphere are required to restore were great whirlwinds; and he merely the equilibrium of the atmosphere. The hinted at the idea, that they had a prohurricanes in the North Atlantic Ocean gressive motion. Mr. Redfield, whose take place during the African monsoons, position on the Atlantic coast, gave him and those of the South Indian Ocean in the finest opportunities of observing these the opposite season of the year, during phenomena, came to the conclusion, that the prevalence of the north-west monsoons the hurricanes of the West-Indies were, of the East-Indian Archipelago. This co- like those of the Indian seas, great whirlincidence of hurricanes with monsoons is winds, and that the whole of the revolv supposed by Jansen to indicate that the one ing mass of atmosphere advanced with a disturbance is the cause of the other. In progressive motion from south-west to the rotatory storms north of the Equator, north-east; and hence he draws the conthe motion is from the right hand to the clusion, that the direction of the wind at a left; and in those to the south of the particular place, forms no part of the Equator, from the left hand to the right, essential character of the storm, and is, like the hands of a watch. Judging from in all cases, compounded of both the rota the Storm and Rain Charts of the Atlantic, tive and progressive velocities of the storm, the half of the earth's atmosphere which in the mean ratio of these velocities. In covers the Northern Hemisphere is in a the further prosecution of this subject, he much less stable condition than that which was led to the important result, that the covers the Southern. "There are, as a great circuits of wind, of which the traderule, more rains, more gales of wind, more winds form an integral part, are nearly calms, more fogs, and more thunder and uniform in all the great oceanic basins, lightning, in the North than in the South and that the course of these circuits, and Atlantic." of their stormy gyration, is, in the SOUTHWe regret that our limits will not per- ERN Hemisphere, in a COUNTER DIRECTION mit us to give an account of the researches to those in the NORTHERN one, producing of the authors we have already mentioned, a corresponding difference in the general on the subject of the Cyclones or Rota-phases of storms and winds in the two tory Storms. So early as 1838, Sir Wil- Hemispheres.‡ liam Reid suggested to the East-India Company that they should take steps to trace the storm-tracks in the Indian seas. The suggestion was adopted; and all the officers of the Company, civil and military, were instructed to send their observations to Mr. Piddington at Calcutta, himself an able seaman, who undertook the task of collecting them, and publishing the results. After communicating numerous memoirs on the subject to the "Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal," he published an abstract of the whole in his valuable work, entitled "The Sailor's Horn-Book of the Law of Storms in all parts of the World." The late Mr. W. C. Redfield, of New-York, had previously devoted much time to the same subject,

* In one of these hurricanes, accompanied by hail, in the South Indian Ocean, in 25° south latitude, several of the crew were made blind, others had their faces cut open, and those who were in the rigging had their clothes torn off.

Our distinguished countryman, Sir William Reid, was led to study this subject, in consequence of being employed at Barbadoes to reestablish the Government buildings blown down by the hurricane of 1831, in which 1477 persons perished in the short space of seven hours. Impressed with the conviction that Mr. Redfield's views were correct, he endeavored to verify them, not only by projections on a large scale, of the facts given by the American author, but by facts taken from the logs of British ships furnished to him

*See Silliman's Journal vols. xx. and xxi., Blunt's "American Coast Pilot," 12th edition, pp. 626-629; and The United States Naval Magazine.

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"On the Winds and Monsoons." 1801. The English reader who has not had access to Mr. Redfield's works, will find a pretty full abstract of their contents in a review of them entitled, "On the Statistics and Philosophy of Storms," written by the author of this article, and published in the Edinburgh Review for January 1839, vol. lxviii., pp. 215-228.

by the Admiralty. By thus grouping the various phenomena of numerous storms, he convinced himself of their rotatory and progressive character, and arrived at the conclusion, that they derive their destructive power from their rotatory force, and that the storms south of the equator revolve in a contrary direction-namely, from left to right-to that which they take in the Northern Hemisphere. These views seem to have been generally adopted by meteorologists, with the exception of Professor Espy, who maintains that, in the hurricanes supposed to be rotatory, the winds blow to a certain point, and that the idea of the rotation and translation of great bodies of air is inconsistent with the observed phenomena. Dr. Hare, and our able countryman, Mr. Russell of Kilwhiss,* have adopted the same opinion; and several meteorologists who had embraced the rotatory theory, have evinced a disposition to abandon it.

Having shown his readers how the winds blow and the currents run in all parts of the sea, Lieutenant Maury exhibits, in an interesting chart, the principal routes across the ocean; the great end and aim of all his researches being the shortening of passages, and the improvement of navigation. The routes are marked by the figures of vessels, upon which are engraven the average passage in days, and which are crossed by lines that show whether the prevailing direction of the wind be adverse or fair. The winds and currents which are met with in these routes are so well understood, that vessels sailing, with the same destination, on different days of the week, may count upon coming up and meeting one another at different parts of their route. If two ships, for example, sail from New-York to California, the one a week after the other, the faster of the two will make up the other; and they will cross each other's paths many times, the tracks of the two vessels being sometimes so nearly the same, that, when projected on the chart, they would appear almost coïncident.

The route from New-York to California is 15,000 miles in length. "It is," says Lieutenant Maury, "the great race-course

"North-America-its Agriculture and Climate." By Robert Russell, Kilwhiss. Edinburgh, 1857. The eighteenth chapter of this excellent work, entitled, "Climate of North-America," and illustrated with numerous diagrams, will be read with the deepest interest by every meteorologist.

of the ocean. Some of the most glorious trials of speed and prowess that the world ever witnessed among ships that 'walk the waters,' have taken place over it. Here the modern clipper-ship-the noblest work that has ever come from the hands of man-has been sent, guided by the lights of science, to contend with the elements, to outstrip steam, and astonish the world. The most celebrated ship-race that has ever been seen, came off upon this course in the autumn of 1852, when four splendid new clipper-ships put to sea from New-York, bound for California. They were ably commanded. . . . Like steeds that know their riders, they were handled with the most exquisite skill and judgment. Each being put upon her mettle from the start, was driven under the seaman's whip and spur at full speed over a course that it would take them three long months to run." Lieutenant Maury has given a minute and interesting account of this race, detailing all the adverse and favorable events which occurred in the voyage of each ship; and he concludes it with the following observation: "Here are three ships, sailing on different days, bound over a trackless waste of ocean for some 15,000 miles or more, and depending alone on the fickle winds of heaven, as they are called, to waft them along; yet, like travelers on the land, bound upon the same journey, they pass and repass, fall in with and recognize each other by the way; and, what perhaps is still more remarkable, is the fact, that these ships should, throughout that great distance, and under the wonderful vicissitudes of climates, winds, and currents which they encountered, have been so skillfully navigated, that, in looking back at their management, I do not find a single occasion on which they could have been better handled."

In concluding this interesting chapter, our author mentions a remarkable fact, illustrative of the accuracy of the knowledge which we now possess concerning the force, set, and direction both of winds and currents. He had calculated the detour which these three vessels would have to make, on account of adverse winds, between New-York and their place of crossing the Equator. The whole distance was, according to his computation, 4115 miles. One of the ships reached the Equator after sailing 4077 miles, and the other after sailing 4099 miles-the one

within thirty-eight, and the other within | viction, we can not bring ourselves to sixteen miles of the computed distance. approve of the reiterated calls which the

author makes upon us to admire the wisSuch is a brief analysis of Lieutenant dom and beneficence of the Creator, in Maury's able and valuable work- the the currents of the ocean and of the air, foundation of a new science, which can and in the part which they play in the not fail to be cultivated with ardor, be- amelioration of climates, and in the other cause all nations, whether maritime or in- beneficent arrangements and adaptations land, have the deepest interest in its ad- which human interests demand. Sentivancement. It is no slight merit to have ments so just and noble, we can not but collected, as our author has done, the feel and admire. "The great globe and numerous and important facts which con- all that it inherits," is a mechanism as stitute the "Geography of the Sea," and complete as any of its individual organto have deduced from them general views isms; and the hurricanes, the thunderof the economy of the ocean, and prac- storms, the famines, and the pestilences, tical rules for its navigation; but Lieu- at which humanity shudders, are as essentenant Maury is entitled to the higher tial parts of its mighty frame, as the praise of having organized, in the United nerves, and arteries, and muscles, of orStates, a numerous staff of observers, to ganic life. To know and to cherish this prosecute his favorite inquiries, and of great truth, is an acquisition of no ordihaving successfully appealed to the sym-nary value; but it may be unwise to weakpathy and cooperation of the most important maritime communities.

In bringing under the notice of our readers works of such transcendent merit as that of Lieutenant Maury, we are never disposed to view them with a critical eye, and have seldom exercised the unenviable and much abused privilege of our craft. Regarding the "Geography of the Sea," however, as a standard work, which must pass through many editions, and receive many corrections and additions from every sea-faring observer, we feel that we are, in some degree, conferring a favor on its author, by a frank expression of the sentiments with which we have perused it. As a work on general physics, in which new phenomena are to be referred to established laws, we are disposed to think that it requires some revision, both with regard to its theoretical deductions, and the grouping of the facts which are supposed to authorize them. Lieutenant Maury himself frequently tells us that his views, on certain points, are merely provisional, and adopted till some better explanation is obtained; but this process is hardly compatible with the principles of the inductive philosophy, and we would rather have facts without causes, than facts but provisionally explained.

In the structure and composition of the work, too, there is considerable repetition, both of the facts and theories which it contains. We find the same idea sometimes repeated in the same page, and frequently in different parts of the volume; and, though sharing in the religious con

en it by repetition, and still less wise to insist upon our admiring speculative adaptations, which, in the progress of science, may turn out to be imaginary.

In the character of our author's mind, marked by strong religious convictions, we discover the source of another imperfection in his work, to which we have felt some difficulty in referring. It is now, we think, almost universally admitted, and certainly by men of the soundest faith, as well as by the most devoted believers in the verbal inspiration of the sacred writings, that the Bible was not intended to teach us the truths of science. The geologist has sought in vain for geological truth in the inspirations of Moses, and the astronomer has equally failed to discover in Scripture the facts and laws of his science. Our author, however, seems to think otherwise, and has taken the opposite side, in the unfortunate controversy which still rages between the divine and the philosopher. Even on the subject of winds and waves, he quotes the authority of the sacred page, and this so frequently, that we can not produce a better antidote to his views, and a better argument in support of our own, than by a simple quotation of the passages in which he appeals to Scripture:

"The Bible," says our author, "frequently makes allusion to the laws of nature, their operation and effects. But such allusions are often so wrapt in the folds of the peculiar and graceful drapery with which its language is occasionally clothed, that the meaning, though peep

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