THE GEOLOGICAL AGEXCY OF THE WIXDS. 287 



YII. in this connection. It tends to confirm the views taken in 

 Chapter YII. The surface of the Caspian Sea is about equal to 

 that of our lakes ; in it, evaporation is just equal to the precipita- 

 tion. Our lakes are between the same parallels, and about the 

 same distance from the western coast of America that the 

 Caspian Sea is from the western coast of Europe; and yet the 

 waters discharged by the St. Lawi'ence give lis an idea of how 

 greatly the precipitation upon its hydrogTaphic basin is in excess of 

 the evaporation. To windward of the lakes, and in the trade-^vwd 

 regions of the southern hemisphere, is no land ; but to windward 

 of the Caspian Sea, and in the trade- wid region of the southern 

 hemisphere, there is land. Therefore, supposing the course of the 

 vapour-distributing mnds to be such as I maintain it to be, ought 

 they not [to carry more water from the ocean to the American 

 lakes than it is possible for them to carry from the land — from the 

 interior of South Africa and America — to the valley of the Caspian 

 Sea? In like manner (§ 365), extra-tropical New Holland and 

 South Africa have each land — not water — to the windward of 

 them in the trade-wind regions of the northern hemisphere, w^here, 

 according to this hypothesis, the vapour for their rains ought to be 

 taken up : they are both countries of little rain ; but extra-tropical 

 South America has, in the trade-wind region to windward of 

 it in the northern hemisphere, a gTeat extent of ocean, and the 

 amount of precipitation (§ 299) in extra- tropical South America 

 is wonderful. The coincidence, therefore, is remarkable, that the 

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

 lie to the north-east of large districts of land in the trade-"v\Tnd 

 regions 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-VNind region of the north, 

 should also be scantily supplied with rains. 



550. Having thus remarked upon these dry coincidences, let us 

 Terrestrial adapta- Contemplate the beautiful harmony displayed in the 

 *^°°^- arrangement of the land and water, as we find them 



along this conjectm^al '' w^ind-road." (Plate YII.) Those who 

 admit design in terrestrial adaptations, or who have studied the 

 economy of cosmical arrangements, ^^nll not be loth to grant that 

 by design the atmosphere keeps in ch^culation a cei-tam amount of 

 moistm-e ; that the water of which this moistm'e is made is supphed 

 by the aqueous surface of the earth, and that it is to be retm-ned to 

 the seas again through rivers and the process of precipitation; for 



