"A pendulum clock brought from the equator to a northern country will run fast. Arctic rivers cut deepest into their right banks, and hunters lost in the north woods unconsciously veer to the right as the Earth turns beneath their feet.
"And in the north, the dangerous storms from the west often begin with an east wind.
"All of these things are related to the Coriolis, the reeling gyroscopic effect of the Earth's spin that creates wind and flow of weather, the countering backwashes and eddies of storms."
From "The Shipping News," the Pulitzer Prize winning book by E. Annie Proulx. She lives in Newfoundland and Wyoming.
She wrote a book, Barkskins which Chronicles the history of lumbering in North America beginning with the French along the St. Lawrence river in the 1700s and culminating with a radical group of new Forrester's meeting about 50 miles from where I live. It is an epic account and thoroughly enjoyable if you are interested in forestry, the first Nations people and the birth of an industry. Shipping news was a great story.Newfoundland is a fascinating place.
I have collected all of E. Annie Proulx's books. Love her writing.