TO ELECTRIC PHENOMENA AND RAIN. 



lightness would probably ascend automatically from the 

 earth, as the result of chemical decomposition continu- 

 ally in operation there ; and it is conceivable that great 

 electrical disturbances, indicated by the tremendous ex- 

 plosions whose echoes occasionally reach our ears on 

 earth in the form of thunder, might cause the chemical 

 formation of large quantities of water. 



We mention this as only one of the causes which 

 might account for the sudden downfall of the vast 

 supplies of water, which are seen at times to fall from 

 the sky; for as we know, these torrential rains are al- 

 most always accompanied by electrical phenomena of 

 great intensity. 



We must however ask pardon of our readers for 

 thus leading them into the realms of theoretical specu- 

 lation ; for we need hardly say that all these things are 

 merely matters of conjecture, and are only put forward 

 as such. When there are so many things unknown 

 to us here on earth which are always open to our in- 

 spection: how shall we pretend to have knowledge 

 about the things far removed from earth, in the eternal 

 expanse of heaven ? 



Passing however from this survey of the invisible at- 

 mospheric ocean to that of the visible ocean, whose 

 great waters it supplies, we find that they cover an 

 area estimated to amount to about three fourths of 

 the whole surface of the terrestrial globe ; whose water 

 surface, to speak with somewhat greater accuracy, is 

 calculated at about 144,712,000 square miles. * 



Now as regards this vast expanse of ocean, though 

 geographers may, as a matter of convenience, assign 

 local names upon their maps to certain portions of it, 



* Encycl. Brit., Qth edit., Vol. x., p. 221 (Article "Geognosy"). 



