calmes du Cancer

OBS: calmes du cancer : terme inusité au singulier (calme du Cancer).

CONT: European sailors had been traveling across the Atlantic and around Africa for more than two centuries, and they recognized a general latitudinal pattern: light and variable winds, with daily thunderstorms, near the equator--the ""doldrums""; prevailing easterly winds near the tropics--the ""trade winds""; prevailing westerly winds in the mid-latitudes; and between the belts of easterlies and westerlies a zone of usually clear skies and calm air, the so-called ""horse latitudes"" where a ship could be stuck for weeks at a time in the calms of Cancer or Capricorn.
OBS: Horse latitudes ... The belt in the Northern Hemisphere is sometimes called the ""calms of Cancer"" and that in the Southern Hemisphere the ""calms of Capricorn.""
OBS: calms of Cancer: term rarely used in the singular (calm of Cancer).