74 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



far as the calm belt of Capricorn ; here it encounters (§ 106) its 

 fellow from the north (^ 98) ; they stop, descend, and flow out as 

 surface currents (^ 101), the one with which the imagination is 

 traveling, to the equatorial calms as the southeast trade-wind ; 

 here (§ 104) it ascends, traveling thence to the calm belt of Can- 

 cer as an upper current counter to the northeast trades. Here 

 (§ 100 and 99) it ceases to be an upper current, but, descending 

 (§ 101), travels on with the southwest passage-winds toward the 

 pole. 



Now the course we have imagined an atom of air to take is this 

 (Plate I.) : an ascent at P, at the north pole ; an efflux thence as 

 an upper current (^ 99) until it meets G (also an upper current) 

 over the calms of Cancer. Here (^ 100) there is supposed to be 

 a descent, as shown by the arrows along the wavy lines which en- 

 velop the circle. This upper current from the pole (^ 97) now 

 becomes the northeast trade-wind B (^ 103), on the surface, until 

 it meets the southeast trades in the equatorial calms, when it 

 ascends and travels as C with the upper current to the calms of 

 Capricorn, then as D with the prevailing northwest surface cur- 

 rent to the south pole, thence up with the arrow P, and around 

 with the hands of a watch, and back, as indicated by the arrows 

 along E, F, G, and H. 



107. The Bible frequently makes allusions to the laws of nature, 

 their operation and effects. But such allusions are often so wrap- 

 ped in the folds of the peculiar and graceful drapery with which 

 its language is occasionally clothed, that the meaning, though 

 peeping out from its thin covering all the while, yet lies in some 

 sense concealed, until the lights and revelations of science are 

 thrown upon it ; then it bursts out and strikes us with the more 

 force and beauty. 



As our knowledge of Nature and her laws has increased, so has 

 our understanding of many passages in the Bible been improved. 

 The Bible called the earth " the round world ;" yet for ages it was 

 the most damnable heresy for Christian men to say the world is 

 round ; and, finally, sailors circumnavigated the globe, proved the 

 Bible to be right, and saved Christian men of science from the 

 stake. 



" Canst thou tell the sweet influences of the Pleiades ?" 



Astronomers of the present day, if they have not answered this 



