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the sun diffusing its heat power differentially, through 

 the 12 hours of the day, exercises in Egypt a pressure 

 of a unit of steam power on every metre of the earth's 

 surface ; i. e. a pressure equal to 25 poods (900 English 

 pounds) to the square metre. Obviously this pressure 

 is greater towards midday and less towards morning and 

 evening. Egypt was selected for the scene of the labors 

 of this expedition because the Egyptian sky is practically 

 cloudless from year's end to year's end, and rain only 

 falls four or five times in the twelvemonth. 



Both ranges of the Cordilleras are also remarkable 

 from the fact that on either being placed along a meri- 

 dian, the Equator is averted towards the North and South 

 Poles respectively from 23 to 24 degrees, exactly the 

 distance of the sun's ecliptic on the earth. 



In view of such striking coincidence it is easy to con- 

 clude that the sun furnishes the primary propelling power 

 of earth. 



Our globe has however not one but two forward mo- 

 vements of special significance : one round the sun, the 

 other with the general drift of the solar system, a di- 

 rection lateral to the former. 



Turning once more to the geographical globe, we notice 

 that across the continents of Europe and Asia, from the 

 South Western borders of China right to the Spanish 

 shores of the Atlantic, in one long line stretches a range 

 of the loftiest mountains upon earth; the Himalayan 

 and the Caucasian ranges, the Alps, and finally the Py- 

 renees. These mountains are also of remarkable con- 

 struction. In the first place their uplands lie towards 

 the South, their precipices towards the North, and se- 

 condly their eastern part is nearer to the Equator, their 

 western to the North Pole, so that regarding the South 

 Pole as a head, these mountains present themselves as 

 an enormous tail, fluke or fin, like the sail of a mill or the 

 blade of a screw, giving a direction to the earth from 

 North to South, i. e. towards the direction of movement 

 of the solar system. 



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