ing over a wide expanse of ocean without interruption,
they become within a certain zone remarkably
uniform and steady, though affected more or less
b y changes of season and external atmospheric disturbances.
These steady winds were a mystery to
the early navigators, and sometimes filled them with
alarm lest they should be carried to regions from
whose bourn there would be no return. T he outer
verge of the Antilles is in the direct track of the
trade-winds, which have a perceptible effect in tempering
and equalising their climatic conditions. Incidentally
they give more rain to the northern and
eastern coasts than to those bordering on the Caribbean
Sea, and bring the rainy season, after the first
tropical heat of the year, by condensing the moisture
that rises from the ocean.
A n explanation of the causes of storms and
cyclones is not relevant here, but the “ hurricane ”
is peculiar to the West Indies, and its birth is an interesting
phenomenon. T h e very word comes from
the Carib “ hurakan,” a contraction of “ huiravu-
can.” T h e vast mass of heated air, rising from the
burning deserts of As ia and Africa, spreads in the
upper regions, and a part of it flows west over
the Atlantic, slowly descending. Something similar
goes on, but with less intensity, over the tropical
areas of South America. T h e heated masses from
the east encounter in the upper air of the tropics
the returning currents of the trade-winds speeding"
to the east of north, and generate vast eddies which
descend obliquely toward the earth in a north-westerly
direction until they strike the lower currents
rushing to fill the equatorial vacuum. Sometimes
there is a concurrence of differences in temperature
and pressure and in electrical conditions, which
begets a terrific commotion along the earth.
Out of the conditions thus briefly indicated springs
! from time to time the West Indian variety of cyclone
¡which is called a hurricane. Its path is narrow, but
it is apt to take its course to the west of north across
[the lower part of the Lesser Antilles and over one
[or more of the larger islands, carrying destruction
¡upon its way on land and sea. Its huge spirals
[always circle from left to right, and the velocity of
fthe wind is greatest on its western verge, where its
¡movement is with the general direction o f the storm.
¡Varied conditions of moisture and electricity cause
¿darkness and lurid lights and colours, which add
their appalling effect to the fury of the a ir ; lightened
pressure within the vast spirals of the wind lifts the
surface of the sea and sometimes causes great tidal
Iwaves, and occasionally masses of water are whirled
up from the ocean to be precipitated in drenching
torrents upon some hapless shore.
I Partly as the result of the currents of the ocean
and the air, the temperature of the islands, extending
over nearly twenty degrees of latitude, does not
¿¿differ much between Great Bahama and Trinidad,
¡fend variations of climate are not great except as
affected by altitude and here and there by local conditions.
The rainy and less healthful season comes
on in late June, two months later, it is said, than in
the early times, and lasts till the end of September,
ffwith great variation in the rainfall. Then comes