102 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA 



this is the zone in which the upper currents of atmosphere that 

 ascended in the equatorial cahns, and flowed off to the northward 

 and eastward, are supposed to descend. This, therefore, is the 

 zone in which the atmosphere that bears the " rain dust," or " Af- 

 rican sand," descends to the surface ; and this, therefore, is the 

 zone, it might be supposed, which would be the most liable to 

 showers of this *'dust." This is the zone in which the Cape Verd 

 Islands are situated ; they are in the direction which theory gives 

 to the upper current of air from the Oronoco and Amazon with 

 its " rain dust," and they are in the region of the most frequent 

 showers of " rain dust," all of which are in striking conformity 

 with this theory as to the circulation of the atmosphere. 



It is true that, in the present state of our information, we can 

 not tell why this "rain dust" should not be gradually precipitated 

 from this upper current, and descend into the stratum of trade- 

 winds, as it passes from the equator to higher northern latitudes ; 

 neither can we tell why the vapor which the same winds carry 

 along should not, in like manner, be precipitated on the way ; nor 

 why we should have a thunder-storm, a gale of wind, or the dis- 

 play of any other atmospherical phenomenon to-morrow, and not 

 to-day : all that w^e can say is, that the conditions of to-day are 

 not such as the phenomenon requires for its own development. 



168. Therefore, though we can not tell why the sea dust should 

 not fall always in the same place, we may nevertlineless suppose 

 that it is not always in the atmosphere, for the storms that take it 

 up occur only occasionally, and that when up, and in passing the 

 same parallels, it does not always meet with the conditions — elec- 

 trical and others — favorable to its descent, and that these condi- 

 tions might occur now in this place, now in that. But that the 

 fall does occur always in the same atmospherical vein or general 

 direction, my investigations would suggest, and Ehrenberg's re- 

 searches prove. 



169. Judging by the fall of sea or rain dust, we may suppose 

 that the currents in the upper regions of the atmosphere are re- 

 markable for their general regularity, as well as for their general 

 direction and sharpness of limits, so to speak. 



We may imagine that certain electrical conditions are necessary 

 to a shower of " sea dust" as well as to a thunder-storm ; and 

 that the interval between the time of the equinoctial disturbances 



