450 THE THYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



cle : it is a reservoir of dynamical force for the winds — a regu- 

 lator in the grand meteorological machinery of the earth. The 

 heat which is transported by the vapors with which that sea loads 

 its superincumbent air is the chief source of the motive power 

 which gives to the winds of the southern hemisphere, as they 

 move through their channels of circulation, their high speed, 

 great regularity, and consistency of volume. And this insight 

 into the workings of the wonderful machinery of sea and air we 

 obtain from comparing together the relative speed of vessels as 

 they sail to and fro upon intertropical seas ! 



838. Such is the picture which, after no little labor, much re- 

 indications which the scarch, aud somc thought, the winds have enabled 

 inl°tL'^ifnIxpS^re- ^^s to draw of certain unexplored portions of our 

 pions of the south. planct. As wc have drawn the picture, so, from 

 the workings of the meteorological machinery of the southern 

 hemisphere, we judge it to be. The evidence which has been in- 

 troduced is meteorological in its nature, circumstantial in its char- 

 acter, we admit ; but it shows the idea of land in the antarctic re- 

 gions — of much land, and high land — to be plausible at least. 

 Not only so : it suggests that a group of active volcanoes there 

 would by no means be inconsistent with the meteorological phe- 

 nomena which we have been investigating. True, volcanoes in 

 such a place may not be a meteorological necessity. We can 

 not say that they are ; yet the force and regularity of the winds 

 remind ns that their presence there would not be inconsistent 

 with known laws. According to these laws, we may as well im- 

 ngine the antarctic circle to encompass land as to encompass wa- 

 ter. We know, ocularly, but little more of its topographical fea- 

 tures than we do of those of one of the planets ; but, if they be 

 continental, we surely may, without any unwarrantable stretch 

 of the imagination, relieve the face of nature there with snow- 

 clad mountains, and diversify the landscape with flaming volca- 

 noes. None of these features are inconsistent with the phenomena 

 displayed by the winds. Let us apply to other departments of 

 physics, and seek testimony from other sources of information. 

 None of the evidence to be gathered there will appear contra- 

 dictory — it is rather in corroboration. Southern explorers, as far 

 as they have penetrated within the antarctic circle, tell us of high 

 lands and mountains of ice ; and Ross, who went farthest of all, 

 saw volcanoes burning? in the distance. 



