OCEANIC CONTROL 1 OVER CLIMATE 31 



changes, to those less favoured lands, where 

 the people, in winter buy their milk by the 

 pound, and in summer buy their butter by the 

 pint, is usually attributed to the action of the 

 surrounding seas. We know, too, that coast- 

 lands generally have a heavier rainfall than 

 districts farther from the sea. In Victoria, for 

 instance, there is a steady reduction of the 

 rainfall as we go northward from the coast, we 

 are apt, therefore, to think that the proximity 

 of water necessarily insures a moist climate. 

 The proposal to fill the basin of Lake Eyre 

 with sea water is based on the expectation that 

 such a feat would inevitably increase the rain- 

 fall of Central Australia, and restore the 

 former fertility of the Lake Eyre region. But if 

 we consider the barrenness of the coastlands, 

 along which the Sahara meets the Atlantic, or 

 read Eyre's account of the utter desolation on 

 the shores of the great Australian Bight, and 

 contrast the torrential rains of the upper Amazon 

 with the almost absolute rainlessness of the 

 coastal desert of Atacama and the guano islets 

 off Peru, we shall realize that the proximity of 

 an ocean is not alone sufficient to endow a 

 land with a generous rainfall. 



