14 OUR HERITAGE THE SEA 



now concerned with the fact that our water to drink 

 and to feed the plants on which we live comes from 

 the sea, and is brought to us by the agency of the 

 winds. Of course the quantity of moisture received 

 by any particular portion of the earth's service varies 

 greatly, according to its geographical position and its 

 physical contour, some parts of the earth receiving 

 water greatly in excess of their needs, and others 

 suffering continuous shortage, these variations having 

 an immense effect upon the importance of the country 

 and the scheme of the world's affairs. 



Here, again, we in Britain have been most highly 

 favoured. We are given to much grumbling about 

 our uncertain weather conditions, and owing to our 

 complicated interests, agricultural and manufacturing, 

 it is next to impossible to arrange that all shall be 

 satisfied at the same time, yet it is undoubtedly the 

 fact that to her climatic conditions caused by, as well 

 as allied to, her geographical position Britain owes her 

 greatness in the world. When we go further south 

 along the African shore, we find that excessive rainfall 

 and steamy heat have produced dense forests, the 

 home of malaria and kindred diseases, because the 

 blessed health-giving wind cannot penetrate their dark 

 recesses and sweep away these poisonous exhalations. 

 There man's energy is sapped by the enervating con- 

 ditions of the climate, and so, although the teeming 

 earth produces wealth in overwhelming abundance, 

 only a tiny part of it can be utilized, owing to the 

 dreadful tax imposed upon humanity by the climate. 



Moreover, this over-rich belt along the coast arrests 

 the wind and the rain, leaving the vast interior desert, 

 a waterless, treeless waste, whereon the fierce sun, 



