Page:Physical Geography of the Sea and its Meteorology.djvu/186

160 on one side and of moist on the other? Answer: upon the supposition that the air without rain comes from one quarter, that with rain from another—that, coming from opposite directions to this place of meeting, where there is a crossing, they pass each other in their circuits. They both meet here as upper currents, and how could there be a crossing, without an agent or influence to guide them? and why in the search should we not look to magnetism for this agent as well as to any other of the hidden influences which are concerned in giving to the winds their force and direction?

351. Principles according to which the physical machinery of our planet should be studied.—He that established the earth "created it not in vain; He formed it to be inhabited." And it is presumptuous, arrogant, and impious to attempt the study of its machinery upon any other theory: it was made to he inhabited. How could it be inhabitable but for the sending of the early and the latter rain? How can the rain be sent except by the winds? and how can the fickle winds do their errands unless they have a guide? Suppose a new piece of human mechanism were shown to one of us, and we were told the object of it was to measure time; now, if we should seek to examine it with the view to understand its construction, would we not set out upon the principle—the theory—that it was made to measure time? By proceeding on any other supposition or theory we should be infallibly led into error. And so it is with the physical machinery of the world. The theory upon which this work is conducted is that the earth was made for man; and I submit that no part of the machinery by which it is maintained in a condition fit for him is left to chance, any more than the bit of mechanism by which man measures time is left to go by chance.

352. Division into wind hands.—That I might study to better advantage the workings of the atmospherical machinery in certain aspects, I divided the sea into bands or belts 5° of latitude in breadth, and stretching east and west entirely around the earth, but skipping over the land. There are twelve of these bands on each side of the equator that are traversed more or less frequently by our fleet of observers; they extend to the parallel of 60° in each hemisphere. To determine the force and direction of the wind for each one of these bands, the abstract logs were examined until all the data afforded by 1,159,533 observations were obtained; and the mean direction of the wind