52 



THE AQUARIUM, JULY, 1896. 



past, it holds in solution, invisible, 

 the vapor it has imbibed. But let 

 that air begin to cool, and it parts with 

 its mass of moisture ; in other words, 

 it deposits it in the shape of white 

 vapor, being no longer able to retain 

 it in an invisible form. This delicate 

 little cloud, or mass of white vapor, 

 however, is of very precarious existence. 

 One ray of bright sunshine, the faint- 

 est return of heat, would send it back 

 again from a state of visible vapor to 

 invisible moisture. Its outward form 

 would be gone, and although we know 

 that its essence would still subsist, in- 

 deed, could never be destroyed, yet its 

 apparent existence would be ended. It 

 would thus vanish like many an infant 

 at its very entrance into life, before 

 accomplishing any specific purpose of 

 its being ; but again, like the infant, 

 it is only the outward form which sus- 

 tains annihilation. But heat is not the 

 only thing by which clouds are affected. 

 Life is ever changing with them as with 

 mortals ; they are liable at any moment 

 to be whirled into the most fantastic 

 shapes by every fickle wind that passes. 

 If the temperature of the atmosphere 

 continues to lower, the delicate, gossa- 

 mer-like vapor (beautifully compared 

 by Lamartine to the world's incense 

 floating upwards to the throne of God) 

 will resolve itself into large masses 

 of rolling clouds, and the mass of 

 vapor, no longer able to poise it- 

 self in air, descends to earth in 

 grateful, refreshing showers, and per- 

 chance in the bosom of the cloud now 

 passing overhead are liquid treasures 

 sucked up from swamps of Florida to 

 go and shower fertility and wealth on 

 the plains of the far-off west. Winter 

 and summer the ''clouds drop fatness," 

 but they have other offices to perform 

 besides those merely of dispensing 



showers, of producing the rains and of 

 weaving mantles of snow for the pro- 

 tection of our fields. They have other 

 commandments to fulfil which, though 

 less obvious, are not therefore the less- 

 benign in their influences, or the less 

 worthy of our notice. They moderate 

 the extremes of heat and cold ; they 

 mitigate the climate. They spread 

 themselves out, preventing radiation 

 from the earth, and keeping it warm ; 

 at another time they interpose between 

 it and the sun ; they screen it from his 

 scorching rays, and protect the tender 

 plants from the heat, the land from 

 drought. Having performed this, they 

 are evaporated and given up to the sun- 

 beam and the winds, to be borne on 

 their wings away to other regions which 

 stand in need of their offices. And 

 here I would say that I know of no 

 subject more fit for profitable thought 

 on the part of the knowledge-seeking 

 student than that afforded by the at- 

 mosphere. Of all parts of the physical 

 machinery, of all the contrivances in 

 the mechanism of the universe, the at- 

 mosphere, with its uses and adapta- 

 tions, appears to be the most wonder- 

 ful, sublime and beautiful. In its con- 

 struction the perfection of knowledge 

 and wisdom is involved, and to turn to 

 Holy Writ, how appropriately does Job 

 burst forth in laudation of the latter as 

 God's handiwork in the twenty-eighth 

 chapter. 



The sighing of the wind as it sways 

 the branches of the forest, which now 

 bend before the summer zephyr like 

 courtiers doing homage, now bend be- 

 neath the fury of the storm like strong 

 men in adversity, sounds to our nat- 

 uralist as angels' whispers in its gentle- 

 ness, or in its fury as the voice of One 

 mightier than Manoah's son, speaking 

 in anger : " The voice of One who break- 



