110 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRArHY OF THE SEA. 



and as currents in the sea,* is constantly in transitu between the 

 two hemispheres. All these facts are inconsistent with the sup- 

 position that there is no crossing at the calm belts, and consistent 

 with the hypothesis that there is. It is no argument against the 

 hypothesis that assumes a crossing, to urge our ignorance of any 

 agent with power to conduct the air across the calm belts. It 

 would be as reasonable to deny the red to the rose or the blush 

 to the peach, because we do not comprehend the processes by 

 which the coloring matter is collected and given to the fruit or 

 flower, instead of the wood or leaves of the plant. To assume 

 that the direction of the air is, after it enters the calm belts, left to 

 chance, would be inconsistent with our notions of the attributes of 

 the great Architect. The planets have their orbits, the stars their 

 courses, and the wind " his circuits." And in the construction 

 of our hypotheses, it is pleasant to build them up on the premiss 

 that He can and has contrived all the machinery necessary for 

 guiding every atom of air in the atmosphere through its channels 

 and according to its circuits, as truly and as surely as He has 

 contrived it for holding comets to their courses and binding the 

 stars in their places. These circumstances, and others favoring 

 this hypothesis as to these air-crossings, will be presented more in 

 detail. 



289. In observing the workings and studying the offices of the 

 The atmosphere to various parts of thc physical machiucry which kccps 

 ot\er"macWne?7j'by ^hc world in ordcr, wc should ever remember that 

 its operations. j^. jg ^|j made for its purposes, that it was planned 

 according to design, and arranged so as to make the world as we 

 behold it — a place for the habitation of man. Upon no other hy- 

 pothesis can the student expect to gain profitable knowledge con- 

 cerning the physics of sea, earth, or air. Kegarding these elements 

 of the old philosophers as parts only of the same piece of machin- 

 ery, we are struck with the fact, and disposed to inquire why is it 

 that the proportion of land and water in the northern hemisphere 

 is very different from the proportion that obtains between them 

 in the southern? In the northern hemisphere, the land and 

 water are nearly equally divided. In the southern, there is sev- 

 eral times more water than land. Is there no connection between 



* The water which the rivers empty into the North Atlantic has to find its way 

 south with the currents of the sea. 



