"My investigations have been carried far enough to show that at certain seasons of the year a vessel bound from Panama to California, must cross at least three, at some seasons four, such meetings of winds or bands of calms, before she can enter the region of the N. E. trades. Hence the tedious passage." Such will ever be the state of things on this continent and upon the eastern Pacific, so long as the S. E. counter-trades are compelled to pass over the mountain chain of South and Central America. Again, if we examine carefully the belt or zone of extra-tropical rains, we shall find that the focus of greatest precipitation is considerably north of its southern limit, and that, other things being equal, this focus travels north in summer, and gives to higher latitudes their needed summer rains. This is very apparent upon the north-western portion of our continent, as the following table will show: +----------------------------------------------------------- | | Lat. |Jan.|Feb.|Mar.|Apr.|May.|June.| | |-------|----|----|----|----|----|-----| |San Diego, Cal. |32 deg. 41'| 0.3| 1.7| 1.1| 0.9| 0.5| 0.0 | |San Francisco. |37 deg. 48'| 1.7| 0.5| 4.4| 2.1| 0.4| 0.0 | |Cant., Far W., Cal.|39 deg. 02'| 3.3| 0.6| 6.4| 2.2| 0.9| 0.0 | |Astoria, Oregon. |46 deg. 11'|27.0|10.9| 6.1| 4.4| 5.9| 2.6 | |Puget's S'd, Ore. |47 deg. 07'|11.8| 3.9| 4.7| 4.1| 0.8| 0.6 | |Sitka, Russ. Am. |57 deg. 3'| 2.5| 9.6| 3.5| 3.3| 1.9| 5.9 | +----------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------+ |July.|Aug.|Sept.|Oct.| Nov.|Dec.|Year.| |-----|----|-----|----|-----|----|-----| | 0.0 | 0.2| 0.0 | 0.1| 1.5 | 3.4| 9.6| | 0.0 | 0.0| 0.4 | 0.6| 3.0 | 5.5| 18.8| | 0.0 | 0.0| 0.3 | 0.1| 3.5 | 4.6| 21.9| | 0.0 | 2.3| 1.9 | 6.7|13.2 | 6.2| 87.2| | 0.5 | 1.3| 1.6 | 3.6| 5.9 | 6.1| 44.8| | 3.7 |10.1|14.8 |12.7| 7.4 | 4.2| 79.5| ---------------------------------------+ The figures are for inches and tenths of an inch of rain.