Temperature, atmospheric
pressure, and the direction of the wind, are all intimately connected with
the vivifying action of atmospheric moisture. This influence is not,
however, so much a consequence of the quantity of moisture held in solution
in different zones, as of the nature and frequency of the precipitation
which moistens the ground, whether in the form of dew, mist, rain, or snow.
According to the exposition made by Dove of the law of rotation, and to the
general views of this distinguished physicist,* it would appear that, in our
northern zone, "the elastic force of the vapor is greatest with a southwest,
and least with a northeast wind. On the western side of the windrose this
elasticity diminishes, while it increases on the eastern side; on the former
side, for instance, the cold, dense, and dry current of air repels the
warmer, lighter current containing an abundance of aqueous vapor, while on
the eastern side it is the former current which is repulsed by the latter.
[footnote] *See Dove, 'Meteorologische Vergleichung von Nordamerika und
Europa', in Schumacher's 'Jahrbuch fur' 1841, s. 311; and his
'Meteorologische Untersuchungen', s. 140.
The agreeable and fresh verdure which is observed in many trees in districts
within the tropics, where, for five or seven months of the yeqar, not a
cloud is seen on the vault of heaven, and where no perceptible dew or rain
falls, proves that the leaves are capable of extyracting water from the
atmosphere by a peculiar vital process of their own, which perhaps is not
alone that of producing cold by radiation.
Pages:
671
672
673
674
675
676
677
678
679
680
681
682
683
684
685
686
687
688
689
690
691
692
693
694
695