66 
THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 
CHAPTER III. 
THE ATMOSPHERE. 
The Relation of the Winds the Physical Geography of the Sea, ^ 88. — No Expres- 
sion of Nature without Meaning, 93. — The Circulation of the Atmosphere, Plate I., 
95. — Southeast Trade-wind Region the larger, 109. — How the Winds approach the 
Poles, 112.— The Offices of the Atmosphere, 114. — It is a powerful Machine, 118. — 
Whence come the Rains that feed the great Rivers 1 120. — How Vapor passes 
from one Hemisphere to the other, 123. — -Evaporation greatest about Latitude 17°- 
20°, 127. — Explanation, 128. — The Rainy Seasons : how caused, 129. — Why there 
is one Rainy Season in California, 130 — One at Panama, 131 — ^Two at Bogota, 
132. — Rainless Regions explained, 135. — Why Australia is a Dry Country, 136. — 
Why Mountains have a dry and a rainy Side, 137. — The immense Fall of Rain 
upon the Western Ghauts in India : how caused, 139. — Vapor for the Patagonia 
Rains comes from the North Pacific, 141. — The mean annual Fall of Rain, 144. — 
Evaporation from the Indian Ocean, 146. — Evidences of Design, 148. 
88. A PHILOSOPHER of the East,* with a richness of imagery 
truly Oriental, describes the atmosphere as "a spherical shell 
which surrounds our planet to a depth which is unknown to us, by 
reason of its growing tenuity, as it is released from the pressure 
of its own superincumbent mass. Its upper surface can not be 
nearer to us than fifty, and can scarcely be more remote than five 
hundred miles. It surrounds us on all sides, yet we see it not; 
it presses on us with a load of fifteen pounds on every square inch 
of surface of our bodies, or from seventy to one hundred tons on 
us in all, yet we do not so much as feel its weight. Softer than 
the softest down — more impalpable than .the finest gossamer — it 
leaves the cobweb undisturbed, and scarcely stirs the lightest 
flower that feeds on the dew it supplies ; yet it bears the fleets of 
nations on its wings around the world, and crushes the most re- 
fractory substances with its weight. When in motion, its force is 
sufiicient to level the most stately forests and stable buildings 
with the earth — to raise the waters of the ocean into ridges like 
mountains, and dash the strongest ships to pieces like toys. It 
warms and cools by turns the earth and the living creatures that 
inhabit it. It draws up vapors from the sea and land, retains 
* Dr. Buist, of Bombay. 
