118 ABOUT THE WEATHER. 



most frightful of deaths, that from thirst ; and those who 

 have passed the fearful region of calms, turn in earnest 

 worship to Heaven with thanks for their new-won life. 



In the German legends, we read of a cavern, in which 

 the Dame Holle sits and brews the weather. That region 

 of calms and storms, is an actual Dame Holle's Hole. The 

 weather of the whole world is manufactured there. 



The sun, which comes twice a year to be directly 

 over this region, never goes far enough away from it 

 to allow of any cooling; and the atmosphere is here so 

 much heated, that it becomes thinner and lighter, and, 

 therefore, is always rushing upward in a continuous stream 

 (courant ascendant). At the same time, an incalculable 

 quantity of water is evaporated from the vast surfaces of 

 the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, diffusing itself through the 

 warm air, and rising with it. But in proportion as the air 

 rises higher from the earth, it becomes cooled, the tempera- 

 ture often falling many degrees quite suddenly, and then a 

 large portion of the water taken up becomes suddenly preci- 

 pitated in the form of drops ; by this are caused great 

 alterations in the electrical condition of the atmosphere, and 

 thus arise those frightful storms so rapidly coming and 

 going in that region, where in general there is perfect 

 absence of wind, on account of the continual ascent of 

 the air. 



Matters are differently arranged at the two borders of 

 this zone. The air, which is continually rising because of 

 the heat, leaves a space behind which contains only ex- 

 tremely rarefied air ; and into this space the cold air from 

 north and south incessantly flows with great force and 

 constancy. This is one of the winds of the earth, and as it 

 flows from the poles to the equator, we will call it the Polar 

 current. In the northern hemisphere, it is of course a 



