126 ABOUT THE WEATHER. 



Tampico and Vera Cruz. This is the Gulf-stream, which 

 carries vessels with the speed of more than six miles an 

 hour from the rock-bound Cape Hatteras to the stormy 

 Bay of Biscay, and drifts the products of the West India 

 Islands even to the coast of Ireland. 



Another consequence of the unequal warming of land 

 and sea, is a phenomenon which all coasts exhibit, 

 namely, during the day a strong breeze blows from 

 the cooler sea to the heated land, a " land-wind ;" in 

 the evening, in the so-called " sea-wind," a current arises 

 from the rapidly cooling land towards the sea, which 

 retains the heat longer. In the evening the mariner leaves 

 the safe harbour, those departing find consolation in the 

 arms of sleep ; in the morning the sailor steers for port, 

 and he whose home again greets him after a lengthened 

 absence, sees it in the glance of the rising sun. 



It would lead me too far here, were I to attempt to 

 unfold all the circumstances which act in concert, to 

 impress upon the simple regular progress of meteorological 

 phenomena, the countless minor deviations which give 

 the local character to the climate of every spot. But I 

 must mention, if I cannot thoroughly explain, one other 

 of the most important phenomena connected with the 

 regulation of the weather. 



We have seen that heat and its varied distribution 

 according to latitude and longitude, height and depth, is 

 the peculiar fundamental phenomenon, around which the 

 others group themselves, upon which they are dependant. 

 Most intimately is the degree of moisture of the air con- 

 nected with it, and warmth and moisture are the primary 

 conditions of all vegetable life. On those two principal 

 forces, therefore, hangs almost entirely the distribution 

 of plants over the earth. The animal world follows 



