COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



terrestrial temperature upon the supply and dis- 

 tribution of solar radiance has entailed a further 

 dependence of local temperatures upon one an- 

 other. For example the warm temperature of 

 southern Europe is largely dependent on the 

 hot dry winds which blow from Sahara, and 

 which powerfully assist in melting the glaciers of 

 the Alps. If Sahara were to be submerged — 

 as indeed it has been at a recent epoch — these 

 dry winds would be replaced by cooler winds 

 charged with vapour, which would condense into 

 snow on the Alps, and thus enlarge the glaciers 

 already formed there, instead of melting them 

 away. Thus the climate would be changed 

 throughout Europe, and the direction of winds 

 would be altered over a still larger area of the 

 globe. If Lapland and the isthmus of Panama 

 were to subside at the same time, so that ice- 

 bergs could float through the Baltic to the coast 

 of Prussia, while the Gulf Stream would be 

 diverted into the Pacific Ocean, the climate of 

 Europe might become glacial. Yet either the 

 submergence of Greenland, or the elevation of 

 the East Indian Archipelago into a continuous 

 continent, would perhaps suffice to neutralize, 

 all these agencies, and restore the genial warmth. 

 In such climatic relations we see vividly illus- 

 trated that kind of integration which brings the 

 condition of each part of an aggregate into de- 



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