Facts from the Arcana of Nature. 97 



been found by effecting a series of levelling operations across 

 the Isthmus of Panama, that they rise fourteen feet higher 

 in the Gulf than in the Pacific Ocean ; whence arises 

 such irregularity under the alleged influences of solar 

 gravitation ? 



Can astronomy demonstrate that the barometric column 

 indicates by deficiency of atmospheric weight or pressure, 

 that within the tropics there is such a redundancy of watery 

 accumulation, exceptional to the general contour of the earth's 

 surface as, presuming the theory of solar attractions to be 

 irrefutable, may reasonably be held to present an enlarged 

 surface, likely to offer greater attraction to solar influences, 

 than other or more elevated oceanic regions ? Maury states 

 that the deficiency of atmospheric pressure at the equator, 

 is represented on the height of the mercurial column by .24 

 of an inch. This is equivalent to a height of only about 220 

 feet over the mean level of the sea in the temperate zones. 

 Sir J. C. Ross states the mean barometric pressure at the 

 equator as 29.974, while in latitude 74° south, it was only 

 28.928, or fully an inch less, or equivalent to an elevation of 

 sea surface, over mean sea level throughout the earth of 800 

 to 1000 feet. Analysed thus, the alleged equatorial pro- 

 tuberance of water is much less than in high latitudes of the 

 southern hemisphere, and lessening, by a gradual variation, 

 from latitude 22.°17 / south. Again, at Melville Island, in 

 latitude 74f° north, it was found to be 29.870, implying an 

 almost equal redundancy of oceanic accumulation to that 

 barometrically ascertained to exist at the equator. Erman, a 

 traveller in Asiatic Siberia, observed a deficiency of pressure 

 on the barometric column, to the extent of an inch and up- 

 wards, in the vicinity of Yakutsk, and on the sea of Okotsk ; 

 which appears to indicate elevation of sea surface above that 

 at the equator, within the area assumed by the Newtonian 

 theory of the figure of the Earth, to present a depressed or 

 flattened surface. 



The deficiency of atmospheric pressure, alike at the equator 

 and in high latitudes, has been referred to an excess of ethereal 

 vapour in the atmosphere, causing its ascent. However 

 applicable to deficiency of pressure at the equator, the reason 

 assigned cannot hold equally good in icy regions. Our 

 barometric readings are at their highest during continuance 

 of calm frosty weather. Moreover, air-borne vapour cannot 

 retain its ethereal condition when exposed to a temperature 

 causing its congelation and descent as snow ; while there is 



