474 rnrsiCAL geography op the sea, and its meteorology. 



off by radiation into tlie " emptiness of space." Thus the air 

 with its actinometry presents itself in the light of a thermal 

 adjustment, by which the land and sea are prevented from be- 

 coming seething hot; and by which they are enabled to perfonn 

 their wonderful offices with certainty and regularity. 



894. A reflection concerning 7ieat—lt is curious to think that 

 this heat which we have been contemplating, now as latent in 

 the clouds above, now as sensible in the waters below,^ comes 

 from the same source whence originally came the heat which has 

 been packed away in seams of coal and stored in the bowels of 

 the earth for ages and ages, to be called forth by man at will for 

 his o\^^l comfort, pleasure, and convenience; that this protean 

 thing is the agent which controls sea and winds, and they it ; 

 that it is it which has lifted up the mountains ; which clothes the 

 world with beauty, and keeps the stupendous fabric of the uni- 

 verse in motion; and that after all, this mighty agent is only 

 that gentle thing that "warms in the sun !" 



895. Prohabh relation hetiveen the actinism of the sea and its 

 depth— VuTsnmg this subject, the philosophical mariner, as he 

 sails along and records observations for these purposes, may fancy 

 —and perhaps rightly— that he has traced to the actinometry of 

 the sea one of the physical conditions which, when the depths 

 of the ocean were laid, had its weight with the Almighty 

 Architect. 



ix>kdok: rrJ>;TED bt -wiLLiAjr clo-res akd soks, statifohd street 



A>'D CUtVKING CROSS. 



