IGO PHYSICAL GEOGKAPHY OF THE SEA. AND ITS METEOROLOGY. 



on one side and of moist on the other ? Answer : upon the 

 supposition that the air without rain comes from one quarter, 

 fhat with rain from another — that, coming from opposite direc- 

 tions to this place of meeting, where there is a crossing, they 

 pass each other in their circuits. They both meet here as upper 

 currents, and how could there be a crossing, without an agent or 

 influence to guide them ? and why in the search should we not 

 look to magnetism for this agent as well as to any other of the 

 hidden influences which are concerned in giving to the winds 

 their force and direction ? 



351. Principles according to ichich tlte physical macliinery of our 

 planet sliould he studied. — He that established the earth " created 

 it not in vain ; He formed it to be inhabited." And it is pre- 

 sumptuous, arrogant, and impious to attempt the studj^ of its 

 machinery upon any other theory : it was made to he inhahHed. 

 How could it be inhabitable but for the sending of the early and 

 the latter rain ? How can the rain be sent except by the winds ? 

 and how can the fickle winds do their errands unless they have 

 a guide ? Suppose a new piece of human mechanism v/ere 

 shown to one of us, and we were told the object of it was to 

 measure time ; now, if we should seek to examine it with the 

 view to understand its construction, would w^e not set out upon 

 the principle — the theory — that it was made to mea,sure time ? 

 B}^ proceeding on any other supposition or theor)^ we should be 

 infallibly led into error. And so it is with the physical 

 machinery of the world. The theory upon which this work is 

 conducted is that the earth icas made for man ; and I submit that 

 no part of the machiner}^ by which it is maintained in a con- 

 dition fit for him is left to chance, any more than the bit of 

 mechanism by which man measures time is left to go by chance. 



352. Division into wind hands. — That I might study to better 

 advantage the workings of the atmospherical machinery in 

 certain aspects, I divided the sea into bands or belts 5° of 

 latitude in breadth, and stretching east and west entirely around 

 the earth, but skipping over the land. There are twelve of 

 these bands on each side of the equator that are traversed more 

 or less frequently by our fleet of observers ; they extend to the 

 parallel of 60° in each hemisphere. To determine the force and 

 direction of the wind for each one of these bands, the abstract 

 lof^s were examined until all the data afforded by 1,159,533 

 observations were obtained ; and the mean direction of the wind 



