Matthew Fontaine Maury, Lieutenant, U.S.N.

“ The Andes, in the trade-wind region of South America, stand up so high, that the wind, in order to cross them, has to part with all its moisture (§ 133) , and consequently there is, on the west side, a rainless region. Now suppose a range of such mountains as these to be elevated across the track of the winds which supply the lake country with rains; it is easy to perceive how the whole country watered by the vapor which such winds bring, would be converted into a rainless region. ”

“ When the foundations of the earth were laid, we know who it was that “measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out the heavens with a span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance;” ”

“ Those who admit design among terrestrial adaptations, or have studied the economy of cosmical arrangements, will not be loth to grant that by design the atmosphere keeps in circulation a certain amount of moisture; that the water of which this moisture is made is supplied by the aqueous surface of the earth, and that it is to be returned to the seas again through rivers and the process of precipitation ”

“ It is a remarkable coincidence, at least, that the countries in the extra-tropical regions of the north that are situated to the northeast of the southeast trade-winds of South Africa and America — that these countries, over which theory makes these winds to blow, include all the great deserts of Asia, and the districts of least precipitation in Europe. ”

“ Consequently, the amount of precipitation in the lake country would fall off; the winds which feed the lakes would cease to bring as much water as the lakes now give to the St. Lawrence. In such a case, that river and the Niagara would drain them to the level of their bed; evaporation would be increased by reason of the dryness of the atmosphere and the want of rain, and the lakes would sink to that level at which, as in the case of the Caspian Sea, the precipitation and evaporation would finally become equal. ”

“ If we establish the fact that the Dead Sea at a former period did send a river to the ocean, we carry along with it the admission that when that sea overflowed into that river, then the water that fell from the clouds over the Dead Sea basin was more than the winds could convert into vapor and carry away again ”

“ PROPERLY to appreciate the various offices which the winds and the waves perform, we must regard nature as a whole, for all the departments thereof are intimately connected. If we attempt to study in one of them, we often find ourselves tracing clews which lead us off insensibly into others, and, before we are aware, we discover ourselves exploring the chambers of some other department. ”

“ The study of drift takes the geologist out to sea, and reminds him that a knowledge of waves, winds, and currents, of navigation and hydrography, are closely and intimately connected with his favorite pursuit. ”

“ Now suppose a certain mountain range, hundreds of miles to the southwest of the lakes, but across the path of these winds, were to be suddenly elevated, and its crest pushed up into the regions of snow, having a mean temperature of 30o Fahrenheit. The winds, in passing that range, would be subjected to a mean dew-point of 300; and, not meeting with any more evaporating surface between such range and the lakes (§ 125) , they would have no longer any moisture to deposit at the supposed lake temperature of 50o; for they could not yield their moisture to any thing above 30o. ”

“ To appreciate the Offices of the Winds and Waves, Nature must be regarded as a Whole, § 369. — Level of the Dead Sea, 370. — Evidences that at former Geological Periods more Rain fell than now falls upon the Dead Sea and other inland Basins, 371. — Where Vapor for the Rains in the Basin of the American Lakes comes from, 375. — The Effect produced by the Upheaval of Mountains across the course of vapor-bearing Winds, 376. — The Agencies by which the Drainage of Hydrographic Basins may be cut off from the Sea, 380. — Utah an Example, 382. — Effect of the Andes upon vapor-bearing Winds, 383. ”