The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-12-26 00:00:00

REVIEWS OF BOOKS

—Explanations and Sailing Directions to a(
pang the Wind and Current Chart
Lieut. Maury, U.S.N. Philadelphia
To a people so peculiarly maritime in position
habit, inclination, and let us add by necessity,
book like that whose title stands at the head of
this article must be one of more than ordinary or
ephemeral interest. As an intelligent and inde-
fatigable observer of the physical phenomena which
diversify the liquid and aerial fluids surrounding
our globe, Lieutenant Maury is well and favourably
known in this country as well as in his own ; and
the great and valuable services he has rendered to
the elucidation of those sciences, by which expe-
ditious, safe and successful navigation may be most
certainly promoted, are acknowledged by the
lighest practical and scientific authorities. The
work before us, although ostensibly designed as an
z.ccompanying complement to his Wind and Current
"harts, is, in reality, a record of prolonged and ex-
tensive observation, digested with profound philo-
sophical care, and embodying most important
'results. It abounds in well-arranged information
xelative to meteorology and physical geography,
ms far as these subjects have hitherto been reduced
to ascertained proportions. Of the paramount im-
portance which meteorological knowledge must
prove in any attempt to either regulate or advance
-mautical science, Lieutenant Maury is at once an
eloquent and an earnest expositor, and in forward-
iing this object, which he obviously has deeply at
heart, he has encountered much labour, expended
"much time, and overcome many difficulties. Now,
that partial success has dawned upon his exertions,
his zeal, instead of flagging, has become more con-
centrated and more energetic ; and having suc-
ceeded in rousing general attention to the subject,
he busies himself in directing that attention into
„practically useful channels, He thus, in general
terms, enforces upon his readers

ilacue

TMPOETIVE OP MARINE METEOROLOGY

We are now about to turn a new leaf in navigation, on
"'which we may confidently expect to see recorded much
.information that will tend to lessen the dangers of the sea,
Aind to shorten the passage of vessels trading upon it. We
ire about to open, in the volume of Nature, a new chapter,
;under the head of Marine Meteorology. In it are written
.he laws that govern those agents which " the winds and
Ale sea obey." In the true interpretation of these laws,
sad the correct reading of this chapter, the planter as
swell as the merchant, the husbandman as well as the
lnariner, and States as well as individuals, are concerned.
They have a deep interest in these laws. For with the
Ihygrometrical conditions of the atmosphere, the well-being
of plants and animals is involved. The health of the in-
valid is often dependent upon a dry or a damp atmosphere,
a, cold blast or a warm wind. The atmosphere pumps up
our rivers from the sea, and transports them through the
clouds to their sources among the hills ; and upon the
regularity with which this machine, whose motions, parts
-and offices we now wish to study, lets down that moisture,
and the seasonable supply of rain which it furnishes to
region of country, to every planter, and upon all cul-
tivated fields, depend the fruitfulness of this country, the
sterility of that. The principal maritime nations, there-
fore, have done well by agreeing to unite upon one plan
of observation, and to co-operate with their ships upon the
lhigh seas with the view of finding out all that patient
research, systematic, laborious investigation may reveal
-1,4) us concerning the winds and the waves. Accordingly,
every one who uses the sea is commanded or invited to
snake certain observations ; or, in other words, to pro-
pound certain queries to Nature, and to give us a faithful
statement of the replies she may make. Now, unless we
have accurate instruments, instruments that will them-
selves tell the truth, it is evident that we cannot get at
the real meaning of the answer that nature may give us.
An incorrect observation is not only useless of itself, but
when it passes undetected among others that are correct,
it becomes worse than useless ; nay, it is mischievous
there, for it vitiates results that are accurate, places before
us wrong premises, and thus renders the good of no value
in these remarks, Lieutenant Maury indicates
no less conclusively the practical navigator than
the experienced meterologist and the anxious
philosophical inquirer. Not less profound, and in
iso degree less practically useful, are the following
observations on

THE GENERAL CIRCULATION OP THE ATMOSPHI

Several years ago I commenced to gather from old sea
journals such information as they might be found to con-
tain relative to the winds and currents of the sea, and to
embody the information so obtained on a series of charts,
'in such a manner as to show by pictures the prevailing
-direction of the winds and currents for every month, and
in every part of the ocean. Indeed, the plan of the under-
taking was to address the eye, to collect the experience of
every navigator, and to present the combined results of
the whole in such a manner, that each one might, with a
Vance, have the benefit of the experience of all who had
'preceded him in any of the frequented parts of the ocean.
This enterprise has been seconded both by the Govern-
ment and individuals. American shipmasters, generally,
have come into it with great zeal. They make the observa-
tions required on every voyage, and send them to me at
Washington. There are some thousand or more ships
-voluntarily co-operating with me ; and, as it might be
supposed, from such a number of active and intelligent
observers, we are collecting materials of great value.
-itlunng the course of these investigations, many interest-
-sing facts have been developed, amounting, in some cases, actnal discoveries of great interest—such as a new
s-ontc, which shortens the sailing distance to the equator
some fifteen or twenty per cent., and, of con -e
ipro-
portionately ports beyond • the s rexistence in tle
North Atlantic a a regular monsoon—and in the North
pacific, near the west course, of a perpetual south-west
trade-wind near the equator—
a unique phenomenon ; also
the existence, near the same place, of a system of mon-
soons. My present purpose, however, is not to speak of
these discoveries, but rather to treat of the insight which
'these investigations, undertaken on such a
.large scale,
.afford as to the general system of atmospherical circula-
tion over the earth. They teach us to regard the atmos.
-There as a vast machine, that is apparently tasked to its
utmost; but as one that is always in order, and never
breaks down. It is a sewer into which, with every breath
me east vast quantities of dead animal matt(

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In Infinite Wisdom, ti

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