§ 555. THE GEOLOGICAL AGENCY OF THE WINDS. 303 



iio^v, by the winds, placG in 0116 hemisphere, with 2^eolosfical events in 



the age of certain ^ , r»iAi 



geological phenome- anothep I 6. y., the tops ot the Ancles were once at 



na in our hemisphere it,, p t -xtti • i • i i -i n 



may be compared the Dottom 01 tJie sea. — W hich IS the oldest lorma- 

 in the other. tion, that of the Dead Sea or the Andes ? If the 



former be the older, then the climate of the Dead Sea must have 

 been hygrometrically very different from what it now is. In re- 

 garding the winds as geological agents, we can no longer consider 

 them as the type of instability. We should rather treat them in 

 the light of ancient and faithful chroniclers, which, upon being 

 rightly consulted, will reveal to us truths that nature has written 

 upon their wings in characters as legible and enduring as any 

 with which she has ever engraved the history of geological events 

 upon the tablet of the rock. 



555. The waters of Lake Titicaca, which receives the drainage 

 The Andes older than of the great inland basin of the Andes, are only 



the Dead Sea as an in- t • i i tx • o ^ i • 



land water. bracKisD, uot Salt. Hence we may mier that this 



lake has not been standing long enough to become briny, like the 

 waters of the Dead Sea ; consequently, it belongs to a more recent 

 period. On the other hand, it will also be interesting to hear 

 that my friend, Captain Lynch, informs me that, in his exploration 

 of the Dead Sea, he saw what he took to be the dry bed of a river 

 that once flowed from it. And thus we have two more links, 

 stout and strong, to add to the chain of circumstantial evidence 

 going to sustain the testimony of this strange and fickle witness 

 which I have called up from the sea to testify in this presence 

 concerning the works of Nature, and to tell us which be the older 

 — ^the Andes, watching the stars with their hoary heads, or the 

 Dead Sea, sleeping upon its ancient beds of crystal salt. 



