ON THE GEOLOGICAL AGENCY OF THE WINDS. 235 



amount of precipitation (§ 205) in extra-tropical South America is 

 wonderful. 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 likewise, 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. 



655. Having thus remarked upon the coincidence, let us turn 

 to the evidences of design, and contemplate the beautiful harmony 

 displayed in the arrangement of the land and water, as we find 

 them along this conjectural "wind-road." (Plate VII.) 



656. 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 ; for were it not so, there would be a per- 

 manent increase or decrease of the quantity of water thus put .and 

 kept in circulation by the winds, which would be followed by a 

 corresponding change of hygrometrical conditions, which, in turn, 

 would draw after it permanent changes of climate ; and permanent 

 changes of climate would involve the ultimate well-being of myri- 

 ads of organisms, both in the vegetable and animal kingdoms. 



657. 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 

 the vegetable and animal kingdoms ; and that quantity is depend- 

 ent upon the arrangement and the proportions that we see in na- 

 ture between the land and the water — between mountain and des- 

 ert, river and sea. If the seas and evaporating surfaces were 

 changed, and removed from the places they occupy to other places, 

 the principal places of precipitation probably would also be changed: 

 whole families of plants would wither and die for want of cloud 

 and sunshine, dry and wet, in proper proportions and in due sea- 

 son ; and, with the blight of plants, whole tribes of animals would 



