The breeze from the west is light
and feeble; because it traverses a country covered with mountains and
forests, which retard its current. That from the east is strong; as
passing over the ocean, wherein there is no obstacle to its motion.
It is probable, therefore, that this easterly breeze forces itself far
into, or perhaps beyond, the zone which produces it. This zone is,
by the increase of population, continually widening into the interior
country. The line of equilibrium between the easterly and westerly
breezes is, therefore, progressive.
Did no foreign causes intervene, the sea breezes would be a little
southwardly of the east, that direction being perpendicular to our
coast. But within the tropics, there are winds which blow continually
and strongly from the east. This current affects the course of the air,
even without the tropics. The same cause, too, which produces a strong
motion of the air, from east to west, between the tropics, to wit, the
sun, exercises its influence without those limits, but more feebly, in
proportion as the surface of the globe is there more obliquely presented
to its rays.
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