§ 550. THE GEOLOGICAL AGENCY OF THE WINDS. 299 



countries in the extra-tropical regions of this hemisphere, which 

 lie to ^the northeast of large districts of land in the trade-wind re- 

 gions 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 also be scantily supplied with rains. 



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

 Terrestrial adapta- ^^^ evidcnccs of dcsigu, and Contemplate the beau- 

 *'^°'- tiful harmony displayed in the arrangement of the 



land and water, as we find them along this conjectural "wind- 

 road." (Plate yil.) Those who admit design in terrestrial ad- 

 aptations, or who have studied the economy of cosmical arrange- 

 ments, will not be loth to grant that by design the atmosphere 

 keeps in circulation a certain amount of moisture; that the wa- 

 ter of which this moisture is made is supplied by the aqueous sur- 

 face 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 permanent increase or decrease of the quan- 

 tity 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 myriads of organisms, both in the vegeta- 

 ble and animal kingdoms. The quantity of moisture that the at- 

 mosphere 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 dependent upon the arrangement and the propor- 

 tions that we see in nature between the land and the water — be- 

 tween mountain and desert, river and sea. If the seas and evap- 

 orating surfaces were changed, and removed from the places they 

 occupy to other places, the principal places of precipitation prob- 

 ably would also be changed : whole families of plants would with- 

 er and die for want of cloud and sunshine, dry and wet, in proper 

 proportions and in due season ; and, with the blight of plants, 

 whole tribes of animals would also perish. Under such a chance 

 arrangement, man would no longer be able to rely upon the early 

 and the latter rain, or to count with certainty upon the rains be- 

 inpj sent in due season for seed-time and harvest. And that the 



