THE EQUATORIAL CLOUD-RING. nS 
feet, the philosopher thought, but was afraid to say, it was owing 
to the " weight of the winds ;" and though the fact that the air 
has weight is here so distinctly announced, philosophers never 
knew it until within comparatively a recent period, and then it was 
proclaimed by them as a great discovery. Nevertheless, the fact 
was set forth as distinctly in the book of nature as it is in the book 
of revelation ; for the infant, in availing itself of atmospherical 
pressure to suck the milk from its mother's breast, unconsciously 
proclaimed it. 
351. Both the thermometer and the barometer 347) stand 
lower under this cloud-ring than they do on either side of it. Af- 
ter having crossed it, and referred to the log-book to refresh his 
mind as to the observations there entered with regard to it, the at- 
tentive navigator may perceive how this belt of clouds, by screen- 
ing the parallels over which he may have found it to hang from 
the sun's rays, not only promotes the precipitation which takes 
place within these parallels at certain periods, but how, also, the 
rains are made to change the places upon which they are to fall ; 
and how, by traveling with the calm belt of the equator up and 
down the earth, this cloud-ring shifts Ihe surface from which the 
heating rays of the sun are to be excluded ; and how, by this op- 
eration, tone is given to the atmospherical circulation of the world, 
and vigor to its vegetation. 
Having traveled with the calm belt to the north or south, the 
cloud-ring leaves the sky about the equator clear ; the rays of the 
torrid sun pour down upon the crust of the earth there, and raise 
its temperature to a scorching heat. The atmosphere dances 
205-6), and the air is seen trembling in ascending and descend- 
ing columns, with busy eagerness to conduct the heat off and de- 
liver it to the regions aloft, where it is required to give momentum 
to the air in its general channels of circulation. The dry season 
continues ; the sun is vertical ; and finally the earth becomes 
parched and dry ; the heat accumulates faster than the air can 
carry it away ; the plants begin to wither, and the animals to per- 
ish. Then comes the mitigating cloud-ring. The burning rays 
of the sun are intercepted by it. The place for the absorption 
and reflection, and the delivery to the atmosphere of the solar 
heat, is changed ; it is transferred from the upper surface of the 
earth to the upper surface of the clouds. 
352. Radiation from the land and the sea below the cloud-belt 
