PART III. OCEANIC CONTROL 

 OVER CLIMATE. 



THE parts of the oceans which are nearer 

 to Australasia than to any other continent 

 (taking the average height of the land as 95oft. 

 and the average depth of the sea as u,oooft.), 

 exceed the land by 1 27 times in bulk. Australia 

 is an island surrounded by a belt of water several 

 times its diameter. New Zealand is a thin line, 

 which, at its widest, is less than one hundredth 

 in width of the ocean belt in which it stands. 

 Australia is small and New Zealand insignificant 

 in comparison with the great sheets of water by 

 which they are bounded, and by which they are 

 in every way dominated. Australasia is depen- 

 dent, all in all, upon its surrounding oceans. 

 The rain that maintains the flow of our rivers, 

 the life of our forests, and the growth of our 

 food, is raised by evaporation from the oceans. 

 That screen of moisture, which protects us 

 from the intense heat of the midday sun, and 

 from the utter cold of outer space at night, is 

 oceanic in its origin. The stability of the 

 composition of the air, the fact that it is always 

 fit for our respiration is, in all probability, also 

 due to the sea; the carbonic acid gas, with 



