This effect, though not great, is not to be neglected when
the sun is in or near our summer solstice, which is the season of these
easterly breezes. The northern air, too, flowing towards the equatorial
parts, to supply the vacuum made there by the ascent of their heated
air, has only the small rotary motion of the polar latitudes from which
it comes. Nor does it suddenly acquire the swifter rotation of the parts
into which it enters. This gives it the effect of a motion opposed to
that of the earth, that is to say, of an easterly one. And all these
causes together are known to produce currents of air in the Atlantic,
varying from east to northeast, as far as the fortieth degree of
latitude. It is this current which presses our sea breeze out of its
natural southeasterly direction, to an easterly, and sometimes almost a
northeasterly one.
We are led naturally to ask, where the progress of our sea breezes will
ultimately be stopped? No confidence can be placed in any answer to
this question. If they should ever pass the mountainous country which
separates the waters of the ocean from those of the Mississippi, there
may be circumstances which might aid their further progress, as far as
the Mississippi.
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