364 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



southwest monsoons. Computing the Cape Horn rains according 

 to the ratio given by King and Fitzroy for their 41 days of ob- 

 servation, we should have a rain-fall in Patagonia of 825 inches 

 in 214 days, or a yearly amount of 1368.7 inches. Neither the 

 Cape Horn rains nor the rains any where at sea on the polar 

 side of 45° S. are periodical. They are continuous ; more copi- 

 ous perhaps at some seasons than at others, but abundant at all. 



1015. Now, considering the extent of water surface on the polar 

 side of the southeast trade-wind belt, we see no reason why, on 

 these parallels, the engirdling air of that great watery zone of the 

 south should not, entirely around the earth, be as heavily charged 

 with vapor as was that which dropped this flood upon the Pata- 

 gonian hills. 



If those mountains had not been there, the condensation and 

 the consequent precipitation would probably not have been as 

 great, because the conditions at sea are less apt to produce rain ; 

 but the quantity of vapor in the air would have been none the 

 less, which vapor was being borne in the channels of circulation 

 toward the antarctic regions for condensation and the hberation 

 of its latent heat ; and we make, as we shall proceed to show, no 

 violent supposition if, in attempting to explain this activity of 

 circulation south of the equator, we suppose a cloud region, a 

 combination of conditions in the antarctic circle peculiarly favor- 

 able to heavy and almost incessant preci|)itation. 



But before describing these conditions, let us turn aside to in- 

 quire how far precipitation in the supposed cloud region of the 

 south may assist in giving force and regularity to the winds of 

 the southern hemisphere. 



1016. If we take a measure, as a cubic foot, of ice at zero, and 

 apply heat to it by means of a steady flame that will give oflP heat 

 at a uniform rate, and in such quantities that just enough heat may 

 be imparted to the ice to raise its temperature 1° a minute, we 

 shall find that at the end of 32 minutes the ice will be at 32°. 

 The ice will now begin to melt, but it and its water will remain at 

 82° for 140 minutes, when all the ice will have become water at 

 32°.* This 140° of heat, which is enough to raise the temperature 

 of 140 cubic feet of ice one degree from any point below 32°, has 

 been rendered latent in the process of liquefaction. Freeze this 



* See Espy's Philosophy of Storms. 



