20 THEORY OF WINDS. 



year, on to the polar regions, where it scarcely 

 ever lightens. 



But were it not for the union of caloric with 

 the particles of ponderable matter, there could be 

 no fluidity of the ocean, which would be station- 

 ary as the solid frame-work of the mountains. 

 Were it not for the heating power of the sun, 

 there could be no contractions and expansions of 

 the atmosphere, therefore no winds, nor fluctua- 

 tions of the barometer. But in the present order 

 of things, not an atom of the great aerial ocean is 

 wholly quiescent for a single moment of time. 

 Its tropical portions being constantly expanded 

 by the influence of a vertical sun, rise and give 

 place to the denser air of colder latitudes ; by 

 which a perpetual circulation is kept up, as de- 

 scribed in the 1st chapter of Ecclesiastes, v. 6. 

 " The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth 

 about unto the north : it whirleth about contin- 

 ually, and returneth again according to its cir- 

 cuits." 



If the earth were of uniform surface and ele- 

 vation, there would be a gradual diminution of 

 temperature from the equator to the poles, and 

 the winds would be as regular as the movements 

 of the heavenly bodies. But owing to the pre- 

 sent distribution of land and sea, mountains and 

 valleys, plains and woods ; the temperature of the 

 globe is infinitely diversified, even in the same 

 latitudes ; by which the phenomena are rendered 

 proportionally complex. And as the changes of 



