ON THE GEOLOGICAL AGENCY OF THE WINDS 195 



winds to be such as I maintain it to be, ought they not to carry 

 more Wciter from the ocean to the American lakes than it is pos- 

 sible for them to carry from the land — from the interior of South 

 Africa and America — to the valley of the Caspian Sea ? 



405. In like manner {§ 228), extra-tropical New Holland and 

 South Africa have each land — not water — to the windward of them 

 in the trade-wind regions of the northern hemisphere, where, ac- 

 cording to this hypothesis, the vapor for their rains ought to be 

 taken up : they are both countries of little rain ; but extra-tropical 

 South America has, in the trade-wind region to windward of it in 

 the northern hemisphere, a great extent of ocean, and the amount 

 of precipitation (§ 141) in extra-tropical South America is wonder- 

 ful. The coincidence, therefore, is remarkable, that the countries 

 in the extra-tropical regions of this hemisphere, which lie to the 

 northeast of large districts of land in the trade-wind regions of the 

 other hemisphere, should be scantily supplied with rains ; and like- 

 wise, that those so situated in the extra-tropical south, with regard 

 to land in the trade-wind region of the north, should be scantily 

 supplied with rains. 



Having thus remarked upon the coincidence, let us turn to the 

 evidences of design, and contemplate the beautiful harmony dis- 

 played in the arrangement of the land and water, as we find them 

 along this conjectural "wind-road." (Plate VH.) 



406. Those who admit design among terrestrial adaptations, or 

 have studied the economy of cosmical arrangements, will not be 

 loth to grant that by design the atmosphere keeps in circulation a 

 certain amount of moisture ; that the water of which this moist- 

 ure is made is supplied by the aqueous surface of the earth, and 

 that it is to be returned to the seas again through rivers and the 

 process of precipitation ; that a permanent increase or decrease 

 of the quantity of water thus put and kept in circulation by the 

 winds would be followed by a corresponding change of hygromet- 

 rical conditions, which would draw after it permanent changes of 

 climate ; and that permanent changes of climate would involve 

 the ultimate well-being of myriads of organisms, both in the veg- 

 etable and animal kingdoms. 



407. The quantity of moisture that the atmosphere keeps in 

 circulation is, no doubt, just that quantity which is best suited to 

 the well-being, and most adapted to the proper development of 



