112 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tects a part, small though it be, of the soil 

 from the direct warmth of the sun. For- 

 ests thus are lilce great canopies sheltering 

 from the sun's rays those sections upon 

 which they grow. Lands so covered possess 

 a capacity for holding much moisture. Con- 

 tained in the leaves and trunks of trees, 

 and more particularly in the spongy moss 

 and numerous streams, it is saved from 

 rapid evaporation, and consequently lowers 

 the temperature of the atmosphere over it. 

 Vapors, then, attracted toward moun- 

 tains by gravity, or carried thither by winds, 

 will at times collect first over those sections 

 which are wooded, and will have a tendency 

 to remain there, be condensed, and deposit 

 rain. 



It may not be out of place to notice here 

 another fact coming under my observation. 

 Winds sweeping across a country, when they 

 encounter mountains, are crowded against 

 them, and, by the pressure from behind, 

 are forced up along their sides and over their 

 crests. Clouds that are in their paths, and 

 which are borne onward to the slopes of 

 such mountains, are sometimes carried up 

 to and over their tops. Slopes which are 

 destitute of timber present very few ob- 

 stacles to such a result. Forests, on the 

 other hand, break or lessen the mechani- 

 cal strength of wind, and so increase the 

 probability of their augmenting the volume 

 of rainfall. P. F. Schofield. 



New Toek, September, 1875. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



WHICH UNIVERSE SHALL WE STUDY f 



A CERTAIN class of astronomers 

 have aimed to persuade ns that 

 there are "more worlds than one;" 

 and those ingenious speculators Stew- 

 art and Tait have recently argued for 

 two universes: the present universe, 

 open to the sense, and an " unseen uni- 

 verse " beyond the range of direct sci- 

 entific investigation but open to intrepid 

 scientific faith. From another point of 

 view this idea of two universes comes 

 out in a much more definite and prac- 

 tical way ; and that is when considered 

 with reference to the two great orders 

 of knowledge that are now making ri- 

 val claims on the attention of mankind 

 as means of education. This conception 

 of two universes as objects of thought 

 was very instructively set forth by the 

 able author of the articles we have pub- 

 lished under the title of " The Deeper 

 Harmonies of Science and Religion," 

 in his third paper, and the passage de- 

 fining the distinction is so well drawn 

 that it will bear repetition. The writer 

 says: 



" There is something which sets it- 

 self up as a just reflection of the uni- 

 verse, and which it is possible to study 



as if it were the universe itself; that is, 

 the multitude of traditional unscientific 

 opinions about the universe. These 

 opinions are, in one sense, part of the 

 universe ; to study them from the his- 

 toric point of view is to study the uni- 

 verse ; but when they are assumed as 

 an accurate reflection of it so as to di- 

 vert attention from the original, as they 

 are by all the votaries of authority or 

 tradition, then they may be regarded as 

 a spurious universe outside and apart 

 from the real one, and such students of 

 opinion may be said to study, and yet 

 not to study the universe. 



" This spurious universe is almost 

 as great as the genuine one. There are 

 many profoundly learned men whose 

 whole learning relates to it and has no 

 concern whatever with reality. The 

 simplest peasaut, who, from living much 

 in the open air, has found for himself, 

 unconsciously, some rules to guide him 

 in divining the weather, knows some- 

 thing about the real universe ; but an 

 indefatigable student, who has stored 

 a prodigious memory with what the 

 schoolmen have thought, what the phi- 

 losophers have thought, what the fa- 

 tliers have thought, may yet have no 



