A LAST WORD. 271 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



A LAST WORD. 



Brussels Conference, ^ 584. — How Navigators may obtain a Set of Maury's Wind 

 and Current Charts, 585. — The Abstract Log, 586. 



583. I HAVE, I am aware, not done more in this little book than 

 given only a table or two of contents from the interesting volume 

 which the Physical Geography of the Sea is destined some day 

 to open up to us. The subject is a comprehensive one : there is 

 room for more laborers, and help is wanted. 



Nations, no less than individuals ; '' stay-at-home travelers," as 

 well as those who " go down to the sea in ships," are concerned 

 in the successful prosecution of the labors we have in hand. 



We are now about to turn over a new leaf in navigation, on 

 which we may confidently expect to see recorded much informa- 

 tion that will tend to lessen the dangers of the sea, and to shorten 

 the passages of vessels trading upon it. (See Appendix L.) 



We are about to open in the volume of Nature a new chapter, 

 under the head of Marine Meteorology. In it are written the 

 laws that govern those agents which ''the winds and the sea 

 obey." In the true interpretation of these laws, and the correct 

 reading of this chapter, the planter as well as the merchant, the 

 husbandman as well as the mariner, and states as well as indi- 

 viduals, are concerned. All have a deep interest in these laws ; 

 for with the hygrometrical conditions of the atmosphere, the well- 

 being of plants and animals is involved. The health of the invalid 

 is often dependent upon a dry or a damp atmosphere, a cold blast 

 or a warm wind. 



The atmosphere pumps up our rivers from the sea, and trans- 

 ports them through the clouds to their sources among the hills ; 

 and upon the regularity with which this machine, whose motions, 

 parts, and offices we now wish to study, lets down that moisture, 

 and the seasonable supply of rain which it furnishes to each region 



