EDITOR'S PREFACE. 



In offering the present volume to the British 

 Public, I have but little to add to the statements 

 of the Author concerning the object which he 

 had in writing it. 



The rapid progress which science has made 

 during late years, under the united exertions of 

 the naturalists of all countries, has revealed to 

 us many new and remarkable facts relating to the 

 formation and temperature of the Globe, and to 

 the movements of the Ocean and of the Atmo- 

 sphere, as well as to the influence of both on climate, 

 and on the adaptation of the Earth for the 



