STORMS. 329 



and September. There is, therefore, this remarkable difference 

 between these gales and those of the East Indies : the latter occur 

 about the changing of the monsoons, the former during their height. 

 In August and September, the southwest monsoons of Africa (§ 

 810) and the southeast monsoons of the West Indies (§ 787) are 

 at their height ; the agent of one drawing the northeast trade- 

 winds from the Atlantic into the interior of New Mexico and Tex- 

 as, the agent of the other drawing them into the interior of Africa. 

 Its two forces, pulling in opposite directions, assist now and then 

 to disturb the atmospheric equilibrium to such an extent that the 

 most powerful revulsions in the air are required to restore it. 



940. "The hurricane season in the North Atlantic Ocean," says 

 Jansen, ' ' occurs simultaneously w^ith the African monsoons, and in 

 the same season of the year in which the monsoons prevail in the 

 North Indian Ocean, in the China Sea, and upon the western coast 

 of Central America, all the seas of the northern hemisphere have 

 the hurricane season. On the contrary, the South Indian Ocean 

 has its hurricane season in the opposite season of the year, and when 

 the northwest monsoon prevails in the East Indian Archipelago. 



941. " In the South Pacific and in the South Atlantic, so far as 

 I know, rotatory storms are never known, and these seas have no 

 monsoons. Such a coincidence of hurricanes with monsoons, and 

 of the hurricane-season with the monsoon-season, is not without 

 signification. It ever gives rise to the thought that the one dis- 

 turbance causes the other; and however terrible the hurricanes may 

 be to us, however disastrous they may appear, yet we are compelled 

 to acknowledge therein the healthful working of Nature which is 

 compensating over all and in all. We need not, then, doubt that 

 these revolving storms have a determinate task to perform in the 

 economy of nature — a task which they can not otherwise fulfill 

 save by rotations ; and certainly it is good that they restore in 

 proportion to the terrible power wherewith they are intrusted. 



942. " We do not know all the disturbances which are caused 

 by the land in the condition of the atmosphere. ' The way of the 

 lightning of the thunder' is to us all unknown. The circulating 

 channels of electricity are as yet hidden in a deep night. 



943. "Neither do we know what influence the land and the 



