224 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA, AND ITS aiETEOROLOGY. 



ment, the marks of design, the evidence of adaptation between 

 The results of the tho oiHt of the oaith and the time from the vernal 

 marine hydrometer. ^^ ^j^g autumnal, and from the autumnal to the 

 vernal equinox ; between the arrangement of the land in one hemi- 

 sphere and the arrangement of the water in the other ; between the 

 rains of the northern and the winds of the southern hemisphere ; 

 between the vapour in the air and the salts of the sea ; and between 

 climates on opposite sides of the equator. And all this is suggested 

 by merely floating a glass bubble in sea water during a voyage to the 

 Pacific ! Thus even the little hydrometer, in its mute way, points 

 the Christian philosopher to the evidences of design in creation. 

 That the arrangements suggested above are adapted to each other, 

 this instrument affords us evidence as clear as that which the tele- 

 scope and the microscope, bear in proof that the eye, in its struc- 

 ture, was adapted to the light of heaven. The universe is the 

 expression of one thought, and that it is so every new fact deve- 

 loped in the progress of our researches is glorious proof. 



457. In the com-se of our investigations into the physics of the 

 Barometer indica- sea, 100,000 obscrvatious of the barometer, and 

 tions of an open sea. jjioro than a million on the direction of the winds, 

 have been discussed. They indicate an open water in the Arctic 

 Ocean. They show that about the poles there is a high degree of 

 aerial rarefaction — ^higher, indeed, than there is about the equator ; 

 for the barometer not only stands lower in this place of polar calms 

 than it does in the equatorial calm belt ; and the inrushing air 

 comes from a greater distance to the cold than to the warm 

 calms.* 



458. The question may be asked. Whence comes the heat that 

 Polar rarefaction, cxpauds and rarcfics the atmosphere in these polar 



places ? The answer is, it comes from the condensation of vapour. 

 The south pole is surrounded by ^vater, the north pole by land. 

 But the unexplored regions within the arctic basin are (§ 429) for 

 the most part probably sea, within the antarctic, land. The rare- 

 faction produced in the latter by the latent heat of vapour is such 

 that the mean height of the barometer there is about 28 inches, 

 while that in the arctic calm place is such as to reduce the barome- 

 ter there to a mean not far from 29.5 inches. In the equatorial 

 calm its mean height is about 29.9 inches. The hypothesis of an 

 open sea in the Arctic Ocean becomes necessary to supply a source 

 for this vapour ; for the winds, entering the Arctic Ocean as they 

 * Plate rV., Nautical Monograph No. 1. 



