'Twas He who gave His prophet power That day, so long gone by, To bring the dead child back to life, The mother's tears to dry. And just as full of love was He When on the earth He dwelt “Emmanuel, God with us," His name And sinners' griefs He felt. He took the children in His arms, And made them welcome there; He wept when others' tears did flow, Or in their joy did share. And when unto that city's gates He saw them bear him to his grave, He saw that mother weep; And the most tender of all hearts Did share her sorrow deep. "Weep not," the loving Saviour said, And to her dead son cried, WINDS AND WATER W SPOUTS. INDS are sensible streams of air. They play an important part in rendering the globe a suitable habitation for man. Though storms are often destructive to life and property, both at sea and on land, they are nevertheless of great service, for they scatter noxious vapours that, if collected in one region, would injure the health of animated beings, and corrupt vegetation. Currents of air move the clouds from place to place, thus diffasing over large tracts of country the rains that help so much make the ground fertile. Machinery is frequently p in motion by aid of the wir which thus serves to grind cor pump water, saw wood, effect any purpose depending wheel-work. Till the discover of steam-power, and its app cation to navigation, the wi were the only agents by whi ships were conveyed ocean between different parts "Young man, arise; and he the world. arose. The mother's tears were dried! across if a portion, condensed by cold, descends towards the bottom, an upward current is the necessary effect. So it is with the atmosphere. No wind can blow without a counter, or opposite, ourrent; nor can any wind arise without a previous disturbance of the equilibrium, or balance, of the whole envelope of air which enwraps our globe. The general causes of winds are these:first, the ascent of the air over certain tracts of land heated by the sun; secondly, evaporation, or the turning of water into vapour by heat, which occasions an increase in the volume, or bulk, of the atmosphere; and thirdly, rain, snow, etc., which lessen the volume of air by destroying the vapours suspended, or held floating in it. Scientific men have formed a table of the different velocities and forces of winds, drawn from a large number of observations and experiments. From this we learn that a stream of air moving at the rate of a mile in an hour can scarcely be felt, and at the rate of two miles is only just perceptible. Up to a motion of five miles in an hour the wind may be said to be pleasant, except in cold weather. A breeze that moves ten miles in the same space of time may be called brisk; at thirty or thirty-five miles it is regarded as a high wind. Then we approach the limit of storms: what is considered a very high wind advances some forty or forty-five miles in an hour; at fifty, it becomes a storm or tempest; at sixty, or a mile in a minute, it is a great storm; at eighty, it is a hurricane; and when it rushes along at the rate of ninety or a hundred miles in sixty minutes it is a hurricane that tears up large trees, carries buildings before it, and sweeps the ocean of the stoutest ships. Currents of air may be constant and general, extending over a large portion of the globe; periodical, as in the Indian Ocean; or variable and occasional, or at least uncertain, as the winds in temperate climates. The general or constant winds blow always nearly in the sam direction, and are called tradewinds. On the north of the Equator, their course is mostly north-east; on the south of the Equator they proceed from the south-east. The origin of the is this: the great heat of th torrid zone rarefies the air that region. The air, in cosequence of being thus mad: lighter, rises, and to supply its place a colder current from each of the temperate zones is drawn towards the Equator. But these cooler north and south currents pass from regions where the rotatory motion of the earth's surface is less, to where it is greater. Unable at once to acquire this increased rate of motion, they are left behind, and, instead of being north and south winds, as they would be if the earth's surface did not turn round, they become northeast and south-east winds. The space included between the second and fifth degrees of north latitude is the internal boundary of the two winds; and within this space calms prevail, frequently interrupted, however, by violent storms. The trade-winds would blow regularly round the whole globe within a distance of thirty or forty miles from the Equator, each way, if the space within those limits were all covered with water; but the uneven surface, and the unequal temperature, of the land turn them out of their course and disturb them. It is on this account that the tradewinds are constant only on the open ocean. The larger the expanse of water over which they range, the more steadily they blow. Thus, in the Pacific, they are commonly more steady than in the Atlantic Ocean, and in the South than in the North Atlantic. In sailing from the Canaries to Cumaná, on the north coast of South America, mariners say it is hardly necessary to touch the sails of their ships. The voyage across the Pacific, from Acapulco, on the west coast of Mexico, to the Philippine Islands, is performed with equal ease. The chief periodical winds are those that blow half the year in one direction, and the other half in the opposite, called monsoons. This term is applied particularly to winds of this class that prevail in the Indian Ocean, blowing from the southwest from April to October, and from the north-east the rest of the year. Their range is from about the tenth degree of south latitude to the northern shores of that ocean. When they shift, variable winds and violent storms prevail for a time, which render it dangerous to put to sea. They are caused by the powerful heating of the land in India, Siam, and adjoining countries, giving rise to currents of air, which disturb the usual course of the trade currents depend upon the position of the sun, and change with its course as it crosses and re-crosses the Equator every year. winds already described. These ceedingly variable and uncertain. No observations that have yet been made serve fully to explain their movements. Those in the interior of continents are influenced by a variety of circumstances, amongst which the height and position of chains of mountains are probably not the least important. In the British Islands the fickleness of the winds is very great. The land and sea-breezes, which are common on coasts and islands situated between the tropics, are another kind of periodical winds. During the day the air over the land is strongly heated by the sun, and a cool breeze sets in from the sea; but in the night the atmosphere on the land is cooled, while the sea, and, consequently, the air over it, retain a temperature nearly the same at all times; so that, after sunset, a land-breeze blows off the shore. The sea-breeze generally sets in about ten in the forenoon, and lasts till six in the evening. At seven the landbreeze begins, and continues till eight in the morning, when it dies away. On the coast of Malabar their effect is said to extend to a distance of sixty miles from the land. Thus, within the limits of twenty-eight or thirty degrees on each side of the Equator, the movements of the atmosphere are carried on with great regularity. But beyond these boundaries the winds are ex Whirlwinds are caused by two winds meeting each other at an angle, and then turning upon a centre. Sometimes they arise from winds blowing among lofty and precipitous mountains, the form of which influences their direction, and occasions gusts to descend with a spiral or corkscrew motion. When two winds thus encounter each other, any cloud that happens to be between them is, of course, condensed, and turned rapidly round; and all substances, sufficiently light, are carried up into the air by the whirling movement that ensues. The action of a whirlwind at sea produces a waterspout. From a dense cloud a cone descends in the form of a trumpet, with the small end downwards; at the same time the surface of the sea under it, |