The New York herald., 1851-08-29

nVLt0001J0k0
design among terrestrial adaptations, or have
studied the economy Of eosmiosl arrangements, will
not DO loath to grant that the atmosphere keeps IN
circulation q certain amount Of moisture that the
waters OF which this moisture is made are supplied
by the aqueous surface of the earth, and returned
to the again through rivers and the process of
precipitation; that permanent increase or de.
crease Of the quantity Of waite, thus put and kept
in circulation by the Winds would b, followed by
corresponding change of hydromet conditions,
which would draw after it permanent changes of
climate. Permanent changes of climate would in
volve the ultimate well being OF myriads OF organ
isms, both in the vegetable and animal kingdoms
The quantity of moisture that the atmosphere keeps
in circulation, is. no doubt, just that quantity
which is best suited to the well being, and for the
proper developement of the vegetable and animal
kingdoms; and that quantity is dependent upon the
arrangement that we see in nature tween the land
and the water between mountain and desert, river
and sea. If the and evaporating surfaces we're
changed, and removed from the places they occupy,
to other places the places Of precipitation probably
would also be changed; whole families Of plants
would wither and die for the want of cloud and
sunshine, dry and wet, in proper proportions.
And with the blight of plants, whole tribes Of
animals would also perish; and, under such a
chance arrangement, man would no longer be able
to rely upon the early or the latter RAIN, or to
count with certainty upon the rains being sent in
due season for seed time and harvest. Aud that
the rain will be sent IN duo season, we are assuret
and when We recollect who it is that ''sendeth"
it, We feel the conviction strong within US, that
He that sendeth the rain, has the winds for his
messengers; and that they may do His bidding. the
land and the sea were arranged both as to position
and proportion, where they and as they are. 1t
should be borne in mind, that the southeast trade
winds, after they rise up at the equator, have to
overeap the northeast ira ie winds. Consequently,
they do not touch the earth until near the tropic
of Cancer more frequently to the north than to the
south of it. But for part of every year, the place
where these vaulting southeast trades first strike
the earth, after leaving the other hemisphere, is
wary paor 10 trnn In tha aDu. .tnriaI ali Of
be it remembered, the northeast trade winds blow
On the polar side, what was the sout 1east trades,
and what is now the prevailing southwesterly winds
OF our hemisphere, prevail. Now, take map OF the
eastern hemisphere, and it will be seen tnat the
upper half of the Red Sea is north of the tropic of
Cancer; the lower half to the south Of it, That the
latter is within the northeast trade wind region;
the former in the region where the southwest pas
sage winds are the prevailing winds. The river
Tigris is probably evaporated from the upper half
of this sea by these winds, while the northeast
trade winds take up from the lower half those va
pors which feed the Nile with rain, and which the
clouds deliver to the cold demands of the Noun
tains of the Moon. Thus there are two "wind
roads" crossing this sea:-to the windward Off
each wind path is through a rainless regions
the leeward, in each case is river to cross.
The Persian Gulf lies, for the most, in the track
of the southwest winds-to the windward of the
Persian Gulf is desert-to the leew ard, the river
lIdus. This is the way in which theory would
require the vapor from the Red Sea and Persian
Gulf to be conveyed; and this is the way in which
we find indications that it is conveyed For to lee
ward do find, in ,h case river, telling to us by
signs not to be mistaken, that it receives more
water from the clouds than it gives back to the
winds. Is it not curious circumstance, that the
winds which travel the road suggested, from the
southern hemisphere, should, when they touch the
earth on the poar side Of the northern tropc, be
SO thirsty more thirsty, much more, than those
which travel either side of their path and which
are supposed to have come from southern seas, not
from southern lands The Mediterranean has to
give those winds three times as much vapor as it
re ceives from them. The Red Sea gives them as
much as they will take, and receives nothing back
in return. The Persian Gulf, dou ubtess, gives
than it receives What becomes of the rsst
Doubtless, il is given to the winds, that they may
bear it off to distant regions, and make fruitful
lands that but for these of supply would be
almost ranless, il not entirely arid, waste, and
barren. These seas and arms Of the ocean now
present themselves to the mind as couAterp poises in
the great hygrometrical machinery of the earth
AS sheets OF water, placed where they are, to
balance the land in the trade wind region OF South
America and South Africa, they now present them
selves. When the 70 andations Of the earth were
laid, we know who it was that "measured the
waters In the hollow OF his hand, and metei out
the heavens with a span, and compre nended the
dust of the earth in measure, and weighed th .
IL nountains in q scale, and the hills in a balance" ]"
Here then see harmony in the winds design inthe
mountains, order in the Arrangement in the dust
Here are signs Of beauty and works of grand,u
and We may now fancy Snat In this exquisite system
Of a Ia ptatioBs and compensations, We can almost
behold in the Red and Mediterraneaus sea, the
very waters that were held in the hollow of the
Almighty hand, when He weighed the Andes an 4
balanced the hills in Africa In that great inl and
basin of Asia which holds the Caspian Sea- and en-
braces of one million and q half Of geogra-
pbcal square miles Of land, We see the water sur
face exquisitey adjusted, that IL is just sufficient
and no more, to return to the atmosphere as vapor,
exactly as much moisture as the atmosp phere lends
in rain to the rivers Of that basin Thus we may
regard the Mediterranean, the Red Sea and Persian
Gulf re ays, distributed along the route of these
thirsty winds from the continents of the other hemis
phere, to supply them with vapor, or to restore to
them that which they have lett behind to feed the
sources Of the Amaz IN, the Niger, and the Congo.
The hypothesis that the winds from South Africa
and America do take the course through Europe
and Asia, which | have marked out for them, is
supported by many coli cidences, to say the
least that entitled to regard it, as probably
correct until train Of condolences striking
be addu ed to show that such is not the case. Re
turning once more to q consideration Of the geo
logical agency Of the winds in accounting for
the depression of the Dead Sea-we now see the
fact most strikiugly brought oui before US, that
II the Straits Of Gibraltar we're 70 be barred up,
so that no water could pass through them, We
should have a great depre 'sion Of water level In
tn. Mediterranean. Three times as much waite r
10 evaporated fran that sea "a Is returned TO IL
throus b the rivers A portion Of water evaporated
from It /, prob ,bIy rained down and returned to it
through the rivers But, supposng 10 Is barred up,
IS the demand upon IL for vapor would exceed the
supply By rains and rivers, ~ would commence TO
dry up sinks down, the expose for cvapo.
ration would decrease, the supplies to the RI 'ers
would diminish until, finally, there would be
establishe ID between the evaporation and precpita-
ton, an equilibrium, as the Dead aud the Caspian
Stas; hut, for aught We know, the water level Of
the Mediterranean might, before this equilibrium
were obtained lave reached stage far below that
Of the Dead Sca level The lake L idjura Is now in
the act Of atrsniog such equilibrium. There
Or, com ected with II the remains OF channel by
which the water ran into the sea. Its surface Is
now $50 f,et below the sea level, ana IL Is sailing
up II rot in the Dead Sca, do we not, in the val.
by Of this lake, dpd Qut-cTopping, some re ison
fof tie question what haze ;he Winds d to do
with the pheuo nena before usl The Winds, in this
sense. are ge Stcal agents of great powe- IL Is
not in possible but that they may afO d us the
means of comparing directly geological eveats
which had 'skeb place in our hemisphere With SEQ
hRicaI events IN anether The toys of the Andes
wttc once at the bottom Of TIE sea VII ch Is the
oldest fo nation. that of the Dead sea or t1c
AIdesl II the former be the older, hen the climate
,f the Dead Sea must have been bygrome
tiically very different tom shat IL nov Is.