32 THE YEAH. 



diminished or stopt, the same catastrophe would assail 

 the western sides. 



No such occurrence is to be apprehended, but 

 still there is a seasonal action, which, though mild, 

 arises from these causes. The sea and the atmos- 

 phere, especially the latter, have one motion from 

 the annual revolution, and another from the daily 

 rotation. If these were in the same direction, or 

 if there were little or no variation in the angular 

 difference, one uniform motion, compounded of the 

 two, would be the result ; but as the angular differ- 

 ence is greatest and also most variable about the 

 time of the equinoxes, there is more agitation, es- 

 pecially of the atmosphere, then, than at any other 

 times of the year ; and as the angular difference 

 is comparatively small and uniform, at the mid- 

 summers and mid-winters, these are the periods when 

 the atmosphere is the most tranquil, unless in small 

 countries with irregular surfaces, where local causes 

 have more effect than general ones. 



The point at which the sun appears to be vertical, 

 or right over one's head, is of course the centre of 

 the action of the sun; and therefore, all the natural 

 action in the atmosphere, or on the sea and the 

 land, that depends upon the sun (and it is difficult 

 to think of any that does not, to some extent or 

 other, depend upon that luminary) must be most 

 conspicuous there, or rather, as the sun, like all 

 other material events, takes some time to produce 

 its effect, the point of greatest influence will be in 

 the same track with the point where the sun is 



