THE CLIMATES OP THE SEA. ' 389 



current on the African side, and the cold drift on the Australian ; 

 and in the South Atlantic, Plato IV. shows that, parallel for 

 parallel, the littoral waters of Brazil are several degrees warmer 

 than those on the African side. Thus at sea the climatic conditions 

 of the land are reversed, for the coldest side of the ocean is next 

 the warmest side of the continent, and vice versa. The winds 

 from extra-tropical seas temper the climates of the shores upon 

 which they blow, not so much by the sensible heat they convey 

 as by the latent heat which is liberated from the vapour they 

 bring. This being condensed, as upon the British Islands and 

 Western Europe, sets free heat enough not only to soften the 

 climate, but to rarefy the air to such an extent as to be observed 

 in the mean barometric pressure. 



728. TJie climates of Europe influenced hy tJie sliore-lines of Brazil. 

 — Here we are again tempted to pause and admire the beautiful 

 revelations which, in the benign system of terrestrial adaptations, 

 these researches into the physics of the sea unfold and spread out 

 before us for contemplation. In doing this, we shall have a free 

 pardon from those at least who delight " to look thi'ough nature 

 up to nature's God." What two things in nature can be appa- 

 rently more remote in their physical relations to each other than 

 the climate of 'Western Europe and the profile of a coast-line in 

 South America ? Yet this plate reveals to us not only the fact 

 that these relations between the two are most intimate, but 

 makes us acquainted with the arrangements by which such 

 relations are established. The barrier which the South American 

 shore-line opposes to the escape, on the south, of the hot waters 

 from this great equatorial caldron of St. Eoque, causes them to 

 flow north, and in September, as the winter approaches, to heat 

 up the western half of the Atlantic Ocean, and to cover it, as far 

 up as the parallel of 40° N., with a mantle of warmth above 

 summer heat. Here heat to temper the winter climate of 

 Western Europe is stored away as in an air-chamber to furnace- 

 heated apartments ; and during the winter, when the fire of the 

 solar rays sinks down, the westwardly winds and eastwardly 

 currents are sent to perform their office in this benign arrange- 

 ment. Though unstable and capricious to us they seem to be, 

 they nevertheless "fulfil His commandments" with regularitj^ 

 and perform their offices with certainty. In tempering the 

 climates of Europe with heat in winter that has been bottled 

 away in the waters of the ocean during summer, these winds and 



