On sailing. If the north wind (tramontana) blows, the ship will not be able to sail between north and north-east (greco), but it must pass the mid-point between north-east and west (ponente), and the sail must be lateen and not square. And if the ship is a caravel, it will sail at 5 points from north and west, that is, one wind and 1/4.

For driving piles: and the blow will always be equal, because it falls equally. The northern wind is cold and dry: cold because it is born in cold places, dry because the cold constrains and locks the waters in perpetual ice, so that such a wind cannot draw the enclosed humid vapours from them, and therefore it comes forth pure and clean of vapours, and thus runs over the high peaks of the mountains, crossing all of Europe.

* The south wind (austral) is hot and humid not by its own nature, but because of the places through which it passes, that is the southern lands, which are hot and dry, so that passing through the hot countries it becomes hot; and because heat is opening and dissolving of moisture, which it draws from the Mediterranean Sea over which it runs, it is therefore hot and humid. * Every wind is by its own nature cold and dry, but the southern ones are hot and humid. The heat it takes from the southern parts over which it runs, which are hot and dry; and because heat is opening and dissolving of moisture, it dissolves the dew and opens the water of the Mediterranean Sea and the land and draws out the humid vapour, whence it becomes hot and humid; and the more it draws, the more powerful it becomes in bringing turbid clouds laden with water, whence it generates great rains, and for this its impact is of greater power than that of the meridional wind. * Every wind is by its own nature cold and dry, but the south wind is hot and humid. The heat it takes from the southern parts through which it passes, which are hot and dry; and because heat is opening and dissolving of moisture, it dissolves the dew and, running over the great Mediterranean Sea, opens the water and then the land of the shores of Europe and draws out the humid vapour, whence it becomes hot and humid; and the more it moves, the more powerful it becomes in bringing turbid clouds laden with water, which will generate very great rains. The southern winds are greater in the northern parts than in the southern ones, in the season of summer than in winter. And this is because the sun dissolves all the moisture it lifts from the Mediterranean Sea, which it then cannot dissolve in the cold of winter, of which vapours it lifts few, and those few it dissolves into water; but when the sun passes beyond the equinoctial circle, then here it is our winter and there their summer, so that the sun dissolves all the vapours it lifts, which run with an aerial undulation as far as the borders of Europe, where, finding the cold in autumn, they make rain, and in winter they contract and fall as snow, and thus the aforesaid winds go on annihilating their blowing little by little.