Adaptations of the Earth to afford supplies of
ivater through the medium of Springs.
As the presence of water is essential both to
animal and vegetable existence, the adjustment
of the Earth’s surface to supply this necessary
fluid, in due proportion to the demand, aflords
one of the many proofs of Design, which arise out
of the investigation of its actual condition, and of
its relations to the organized beings which are
placed upon it.
to say anything of them : without the use of these we could have
nothing of culture or civility: no Tillage or Agriculture; no
Reaping or Mowing; no Ploughing or Digging; no Pruning or
Loping; no Grafting or Insition; no mechanical Arts or Trades;
no Vessels or Utensils of Household-stuff; no convenient Houses
or Edifices ; no Shipping or Navigation. What a kind of'barbarous
and sordid life we must necessarily have lived, the Indians
in the Northern part of America are a clear demonstration.
Only it is remarkable that those which are of most frequent and
necessary use, as Iron, Brass and Lead, are the most common
and plentiful : others that are more rare, may better be spared,
yet are they thereby qualified to be made the common measure
and standard of the value of all other commodities, and so to
serve for Coin or Money, to which use they have been employed
by all civil Nations in all Ages.” Ray’s Wisdom of God in the
Creation. Pt. i. 5th ed. 1709, p. 110.
FUNCTIONS OF THE ATMOSPHERE. 007
Nearly three fourths of the Earth being covered
with Sea, whilst the remaining dry land
is in need of continual supplies of water, for the
sustenance of the animal and vegetable kingdoms,
the processes by which these supplies are
rendered available for such important purposes,
form no inconsiderable part of the beautiful and
connected mechanisms of the terraqueous Globe.
The great Instrument of communication between
the surface of the Sea, and that of the
Land, is the Atmosphere, by means of which a
perpetual supply of fresh water is derived from
an Ocean of salt water, through the simple process
of evaporation.
By this process, water is incessantly ascending
in the state of Vapour, and again descending in
the form of Dew and Rain.
Of the water thus supplied to the surface of
the land, a small portion only returns to the Sea
directly in seasons of flood through the channels
of Rivers ;*
A second portion is re-absorbed into the Atmosphere
by Evaporation;
A third portion enters into the composition of
Animal and Vegetable bodies;
* It is stated by M. Arago, that one third only of the water
which falls in rain, within the basin of the Seine, flows by that
river into the sea: the remaining two thirds either return into
the atmosphere by evaporation, or go to the support of vegetable
and animal life, or find their way into the sea by subterraneous
passages. Annuaire, pour l’An 1835.