THE ATMOSrHERE, 93 



Architect, the mind is enriched with the conviction that it has 

 comprehended a thought that was entertained at the creation. 

 For this reason the beautiful compensations which pliilosophers 

 have discovered in terrestrial arrangements are sources of never- 

 failing wonder and delight. How often have we been called on 

 to admire the benign provision by which fresh water is so con- 

 stituted that it expands from a certain temperature down to 

 freezing! We recognize in the formation of ice on the top 

 instead of at the bottom of freezing water, an arrangement which 

 subserves, in manifold ways, wise and beneficent purposes. So, 

 too, when we discern in the upper sky (§ 234) currents of wind 

 arranged in strata one above the other, and running hither and 

 thither in different directions, may we not say that we can here 

 recognize also at least one of the fore-ordained offices of these 

 upper winds ? That by sending down fresh air and taking up 

 foul, they assist in maintaining the world in that state in which 

 it was made and for which it is designed — " a habitation fit for 

 man ?" 



241. Tlie effect of downward currents in producing cold. — The 

 phenomena of cold and warm " spells " are often observed in the- 

 United States, and I suppose in other parts of the world also ; 

 and here in these downward currents we have the explanation 

 and the cause of sudden and severe local changes in the weather. 

 These belts often lie east and west rather than nortli and south, 

 and we frequently have much colder or hotter weather in them 

 than we have even several degrees to the north or to the south 

 of them. The conditions required for one of these cold " snaps "^ 

 in America appear to be a north or north-west wind of consider- 

 able breadth from west to east. As it goes to the south, its ten- 

 dency is, if it reach high enough, to bring down cold air from 

 above in the manner of the trade-winds (§ 238) ; and when the 

 air thus brought down chances to be, as it often is, dry and cold, 

 we have the phenomenon of a cold belt, with warmer weather 

 both to the north and the south of it. While I write the ther- 

 mometer is — 4P in Mississippi, lat. 32°, and they arc having 

 colder weather there than we have either in Washington or Cin- 

 cinnati, 7° farther to the north. 



242. Tlie winter northers of Texas. — The winter " northers " of 

 Texas sometimes bring down the cold air there with ten-ific 

 effect. These bitter cold winds are very severe at Nueces, in 

 the coast country, or the south-west corner of Texas bordering 



