THE ATMOSPHERIC OCEAN. 75 



nomena on land and sea. Without this great agent 

 no visible motion would ever take place in the sea. 

 Its great currents, indeed, might flow on (though 

 even that is questionable), but its surface would 

 never present any other aspect than that of an un- 

 ruffled sheet of clear glass. The air, then, becomes 

 in this place an appropriate subject of consideration. 

 The Voice of Ocean has something very emphatic to 

 say about the atmosphere. 



In regard to its nature, it is sufficient to say that 

 atmospheric air is composed of two gases oxygen 

 and nitrogen. Like the sea, the atmosphere is an 

 ocean which flows, not in chaotic confusion, but in 

 regular, appointed courses ; acting in obedience to 

 the fixed, unvarying laws of the Almighty, and hav- 

 ing currents, counter-currents, and eddies also, just 

 like the watery ocean, which exercise a specific and 

 salutary influence where they exist. 



The offices of the atmosphere are thus quaintly 

 enumerated by Maury : " The atmosphere is an 

 envelope or covering for the distribution of light and 

 heat over the Earth ; it is a sewer into which, with 

 every breath we draw, we cast vast quantities of 

 dead animal matter ; it is a laboratory for purifica- 

 tion, in which that matter is recompounded, and 

 wrought again into wholesome and healthful shapes ; 

 it is a machine for pumping up all the rivers from 

 the sea, and for conveying the water from the ocean 

 to their sources in the mountains. It is an in- 

 exhaustible magazine, marvellously stored ; and 



