WINDS AND STORMS. 439 



so unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they 

 return again." 



"Tliis constitutes one vast, -wonderful, connected, and regular 

 system, coextensive with the globe, necessary to the return of mois- 

 ture from the oceans upon the most inconsiderable portion of it, and 

 to the condensation of the local moisture of evaporation ; and by it 

 the waters are returned from the oceans, as regularly and bountifully 

 upon the far interior of the great continents in the same latitudes 

 as upon the 'isles which rest in their bosoms.' 



"From what ocean and by what machinery do our rivers return? 

 Not wholly or mainly from the North Atlantic, although it lies ad- 

 jacent to us, and they often seem to do so ; for, first, all storms, 

 showers, and clouds, which furnish, independently, any appreciable 

 quantity of rain to the United States, and even adjacent to the At- 

 lantic itself, come from a westerly point and pass to the eastward. 

 This is a general, uniform, and invariable law, although there is in 

 different places, and in the same place at different times, some varia- 

 tion in their direction; ranging in storms from W. by S. to S.S. W., 

 and in showers between S. W. and N. W. to the opposite easterly points of 

 the compass; the most general direction, east of the Alleghanies being 

 from W.S. W. to E.N.E." BUTLER. 



The rush of N.N.E. winds to meet the S.W. storms, car- 

 ried on by the higher currents to the N.E., are said by 

 some meteorologists to be most observable on the S.E. side 

 of the Alleghanies, on the Atlantic plane. There are also 

 S.E. and southern winds, which flow under the larger storms, 

 if the axes of the storms are some distance north of the 

 place of observation, or if the axes are south of the ob- 

 server these winds will be even N.N.W., flowing into the 

 same. On the Alleghany range these winds have as much 

 violence as on the S.E. side of the mountain barrier, and 

 are accompanied by nearly the same order of phenomena. 

 These winds are sometimes of long duration, and have great 

 force and velocity; striking the sides of the mountains, they 

 produce something of the ocean sound or roar of the higher 

 rushing currents. They also carry clouds, sometimes full, 

 dark, and heavy, in the strata of the storm-fog and storm- 

 scud, in the region within a mile and a half of the earth's 



