H. W. Dove on Rain in the Temperate Zone. 399 
the Portuguese coasts sooner than Madeira, and Madeira sooner 
than Teneriffe and Canary; and so, as if from the north, these 
winds come gradually from above downward; and in these higher 
regions they are found even during the summer, while the north- 
east wind is moving over the face of the sea with considerable 
force. These higher winds descend slowly from the elevated at- 
mosphere of the mountains. This is seen clearly in the clouds 
which in October surround the point of the South-Peak; which 
fall continually lower, and at last settle on the crest of the hills 
some 600 feet high, between Orotawa and the south coast, here 
here for months. Rain falls on the peel eg spurs of the moun- 
tains, and the Peak is covered with snow.” 
I consider the views thus uglier se 9 ty von Buch, among the 
happiest thoughts which were ever brought forward i fs the science. 
It is the more to be regretted that in the year 1829, in his ‘ Essay on 
the Subtropical Zone,’ L. v. Buch should have given these views 
an extent not sustained in nature. I know very well that formerly 
all naturalists supposed that the phenomena observed within cir- 
cumscribed geographical limits, stretched similarly over the whole 
extent of the earth ;—that they looked upon the monsoons as a 
local modification of the tradewind only within the Tropical 
Zone ;—that they had no idea of finding in the Temperate Zone 
similar extensive " dfastbens under different longitudes, and of 
like geographic extent. Iam far from charging von Buch with 
= § the earth are opening to us set which were formerly be- 
yond the reach of inquiry, it would be unjnstifiable to blind 
ourselves to the new points of view that are offered us. It might 
sound paradoxical to say, that in summer the interior of Siberia 
has really such an absence of wind currents as we are in the 
habit of regarding as confined to the equator, but it must be de- 
clared a repudiation of physical laws, to say that the air of the 
Lae oreary Zone continually moves around the earth like a steady 
ind, as is now printed in every text-book, for every one 
it spa that the air moves only towards a _ of disturb- 
ance, or after rising to such a place then turns back 
As proofs of the subtropic zone, Leopold v. Buch points out the 
yearly periodical diminution of atmospheric pressure from summer 
to winter, and deduces this diminution from the currents coming 
down from the mountains. Since in the Indian Ocean the south- 
west monsoon causes the barometer to fall, he takes this as one 
of the descending winds; for he says: In ndia, the southwest 
monsoons lower the barometer, and this just in proportion as they 
move downward. He adds further, that this periodic barometric 
