CHAPTER XXVIII

THE WIND

Once was the remark pointedly made: "The wind bloweth where it listeth." And that is nearly true still. The leading winds are under the calculation of the meteorologist, but the others will not be bound by laws.

Yet there are instruments for measuring the velocity and force of the wind, after it is on; but "whence it comes" is a different matter. A gentle air moves at the rate of 7 miles an hour; a hurricane from 80 to 150 miles, pressing with 50 lbs. on the square foot exposed to its fury. Some of the gusts of the Tay Bridge storm, in 1879, had a velocity of 150 miles an hour, with a pressure of 80 to 90 lbs. to the square foot.

Before steamers supplanted so many sailing vessels, seamen required to be always on the alert as to the direction and strength of the wind, and the likelihood of any sudden change; and they chronicled twelve different strengths from "faint air" to a "storm."

In general, the wind may be considered to be the result of a change of pressure and temperature in the atmosphere at the same level. The air of a warmer region, being lighter, ascends, and gives place to a current of wind from a colder region. These two currents--the higher and the lower--will continue to blow until there is equilibrium.

The trade winds are regular and constant. These were much followed in the days of old. A vast amount of air in the tropics gets heated and ascends, being lighter, and travels to the colder north. A strong current rushes in from the north to take its place. But the earth rotates round its axis from west to east, and the combined motions make two slant wind directions, which are called the "trade winds," because they were so important in trade navigation.

Among the periodical winds are the "land and sea breezes." During the day, the land on the sea coast is warmer than the sea; accordingly, the air over the land becomes heated and ascends, the fine cool breeze from the sea taking its place. Towards evening there is the equilibrium of temperature which produces a temporary calm. Soon the earth chills, and the sea is counterbalancingly warm--as sea-water is steadier as to temperature than is land--the air over the sea becomes warmer, and ascends, the current from the land rushing in to take its place. Hence during the night the wind is reversed, until in the morning again the equilibrium is restored and there is a calm, so far as these are concerned. These are therefore called the "land and sea breezes." Of course, it is within the tropics that these breezes are most marked. By the assistance of other winds, a hurricane will there occasionally destroy towns and bring about much damage and loss of life; but better that hundreds should perish by a hurricane than thousands by the pestilence which, but for the storm, would have done its dire work.

In countries where the differences of pressure are more marked than the differences of temperature, in the surrounding regions the strength of the wind thereby occasioned is far stronger than the land and sea breezes.

The variable winds are more conflicting. These depend on purely local causes for a time, such as "the nature of the ground, covered with vegetation or bare; the physical configuration of the surface, level or mountainous; the vicinity of the sea or lakes, and the passage of storms." Among these winds are the simoom and sirocco.

The _east_ winds, which one does not care about in the British Islands during the spring time, are occasioned by the powerful northern current which rushes south from the northern regions in Europe. Dr. Buchan points out a very common mistake among even intelligent observers who shudder at the hard east winds. It is generally held that these winds are damp. They are unhealthy, but they are dry. It is quite true that many easterly winds are peculiarly moist; all that precede storms are so far damp and rainy; and it is owing to this circumstance that, on the east coast of Scotland, the east winds are searching and carry most of the annual rainfall there. But all of these moist easterly winds, however, soon turn to some westerly point. The real east wind, so much feared by invalids, does not turn to the west; it is exceeding dry. Curious is it that brain diseases, as well as consumption, reach their height in Britain while east winds prevail. Once in Edinburgh, during the early spring, I had rheumatic fever, and during my convalescence my medical adviser, Dr. Menzies, would not let me have a short drive until the wind changed to the west. The first thing I anxiously watched in the morning was the flag on the Castle; and for nearly two months it always waved from the east. How heart-depressing!

Creatures are we in the hands of nature's messengers. We so much depend upon the weather for our happiness. Joyful are we when the honey-laden zephyr waves the long grass in June, or when

"The gentle wind, a sweet and passionate wooer, Kisses the blushing leaf."

Compared with this, how terrible is Shakespeare's allusion to the appalling aspects of the storm:--

"I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds Have rived the knotty oaks; and I have seen The ambitious ocean swell, and rage and foam, To be exalted with the threat'ning clouds; But never till to-night, never till now, Did I go through a tempest dropping fire."