THE WEATHER, AND WEATHER PROPHETS. 171 



extending the limits of the vaporous atmosphere and 

 maintaining the higher regions of the air in a state 

 of increased humidity. And this is the way in which 

 we conceive it possible the planets Venus and Mercury 

 (as we have before hinted in our Lecture on the Sun, 

 but without further explanation) may be maintained at a 

 degree of superficial temperature not incompatible with 

 even terrestrial forms of life. Their climate, to be sure, 

 would have little to recommend it to our tastes ; as 

 it would probably afford small relief from a perpetual 

 succession of cloudy days and rainy nights. 



(33.) Is it in any degree within the power of man to 

 alter the weather? A strange question, it may seem at 

 first sight to propose ! but by no means so absurd a one 

 as it may appear. The total amount of annual rainfall 

 over any district, is an element of its weather and its 

 climate of the last importance; and when we look over 

 the registers of rainfalls which are now so assiduously 

 kept in almost every part of England and other civilized 

 countries, it is impossible not to be struck by its very 

 great local diversity ; even in neighbouring places, whose 

 general similarity of situation as regards wind-exposure 

 and surface configuration would seem to preclude any 

 material difference on an average of years in their re- 

 ception of rain ; if really indifferent in its choice where 

 to fall There is evidently something distinct from mere 

 local situation which determines this element of climate ; 

 and we must look for it in the nature of the surface of 

 the districts, and its relations to heat and moisture 

 relations which the operations of man on the soil itself, 



