The Kansas herald of freedom., 1855-09-29
The Atmosphere--1ts Wonders.

Era.
The eAtmosphere---Itsw Wonders
The atmosphere forms spherical she'll
surrounding the earth to depth which
is unknown to US, by reason of its grow
ing tenuity as it is released from the
pressure of its own superintendent
mass. Its upper surface cannot be near
er to us than fifty, and scarcely be more
than five hundred miles. It surrounds
us on all sides, yet we see it not; itpress
es on us with load of fifteen pounds on
every square inch or surface of our bod
les, or from seventy to one hundred tons
on us all, yet we do not SO much as feel
its weight. Softer than the finest down,
more impalable than the finest gossamer,
it leaves the cobweb undisturbed, and
scarcely disturbs the slightest 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 refrac
tory substances with its weight When
in motion, It's force is sufficient to level
the most stately forests and stable build
ings with the earth to raise the waters
of the ocean into ridges like mountains,
and dash the strongest ships to pieces
like toys. 1t warns and coOls by turns
the earth and the living creatures that in
habit it. 1t draws up vapors from the
sea and land, retains them dissolved in
itself, or suspends them in cisterns OF
clouds, and throws them down again as
rain or dew when they are required. 1t
bends the rays of the sun from their
path to give us the twilight of evening
and of dawn; it disperses and refracts
their various tints to beautify the ap-
proach and the retreat of the orb OF day.
But for the atmosphere, sunshine would
burst upon us and fail us at once, and at
once remove us from midnight darkness
to the blaze of noon. We should have
no twilight to soften aud beautify the
landscape, no clouds to shade US from the
scorching heat; but the bald earth, as 1t
revolyed on It's axis, would turn its tann-
ed and weathered front to the full and
unmitigated rays Of the lord of day
1t affords the gas which WHITES and
warns our frames, and receives into itself
that which had been polluted by use, and
is thrown off as noxious. 1t feeds the
flame of life exactly as it does that of the
fire: it is in both cases consumed, and
affords the food of consumption in both
cases it becomes combined with charcoal,
which requires it for combustion, and is
removed by it when this is over.
cit is only the girdling encircling air, -
says writer in the North British Re-
view, ''that flows above and around us,
that makes the whole world kin. The
carbonic acid with which to-day ouI
breathing fills the air, tomorrow seeks
hts way round the world. The date trees
THAT grow round the falls of the Nile viii
drink it in by their leaves the cedars Of
Lebanon will take of it to add to theil
stature; the cocoa nuts of Tahita viii
grow rapidly upon it; and the palms
and bananas of Japan will change it into
flowers.
| '.The oxygen we are breathing was
distilled for us some short time ago by
the magnolias of the Susquehanna, and
the great. trees that skirt the Orinoct
and the Amazon; the rhododendrons o.
the Himalayas contribute to it, and the
roses and myrtles of Cashmere. the Gin
namon tree of Ceylon, and the forest:
older than the flood, buried deep in the
| heart of Africa, not behind the Noun
taips of the Moon. The rain we see de
scending was thawed for US out of the
{ icebergs which have watched the polar
star for ages; and the lotus lilies hav'
soaked up from the Nile and exhaled a.
vapor, SHOWS that rested on the sumit
of the Alps
''The atmosphere, says Mann, "whicl
forms the outer surface of the habitabl'
world, is vast reservoir, into which tn,
; supply of food designed for living crea
lures is thrown, or, in one word, 1t j
itself the food in its simple form, of al
living creatures. The animal grind
down the fibre and the tissue of the plant
: or the nutricious store that has been lai,
up within It's cells, and converts thes
; into the substance of which its own OF
gans are composed. The plant require
: the organsand nutritious store thus yield
: ed up as food to the animal from the in
: vulnerable air surrounding il; but AM
J mails are furnished with the means {
, locomotion and seizure-they can az
proaeh their food, lay hold of and swal
a low it; plants must await until their foo
/; comes to them. No solid particles fin
q access to their frames; the restless am
e bient air, which rushes past them loade
5 with the carbon, the hydrogen, the oxJ
e gen. the water. and everything they nee
e in the shape of supplies, is constantly
e hand to minister to their wants, not oni
e to afford them food in due season, but
: the shape OF fashion in which italone ca
: avail them.