the important cultivation and vegetation of the continent being dependent on the broad, rich, level tracts that reach for thousands of miles in successive terraces, almost unbroken by hills, through a large part of both divisions of America."

Europe is the most complicated of continents. America and Australia are both simple, the one with its great mountain system in an almost continuous line, and its chief drainage in one direction; and the other with its prosaic destitution of great features, either mountain, lake, or river.

Variety of conditions and influences being essential to the progress of civilization, it is interesting to observe the tendency of different regions of the globe to assist or to hinder human advancement. Monotonous climates and monotonous countries tend to induce a stationary and conservative condition of the human mind, and had it not been for the warlike irruptions made from time to time by more impetuous mountain races, the inhabitants of great plains would have sunk into a state of vegetative repetition of the same forms of life, and of the same habits. The existence of variety to stimulate, and of difficulty to render industry indispensable, both of which arise, to a great extent, out of conditions of physical geography, exert the most powerful influence on the education of the human race; and if we understand the structure and position of different countries, we can easily see where civilization can be an early, and where it must be a late condition of the inhabitants.

A school of unphilosophers has lately been trying to grow up amongst us, who caricature the doctrine of race, and who think themselves wiser than other persons, because they are unable to perceive that the mobility of certain races and the stationary character of others are intimately connected with the conditions under which they have existed. Such shallow reasoners feel no scruples in laying down the law that certain races must be extirpated, and that certain others must be enslaved, and they raise a sort of hyena laugh against those who believe that, by applying principles of justice, benevolence, and industry, all the great branches of the human family may be at last raised to a participation of the blessings of liberty and civilization. The unchangeable habits of savages are paralleled by the unchangeable habits of the pauper and criminal class in European countries, and yet there is no distinction of race between the tramp and the tradesman, the hereditary pickpocket and the thriving artizan. If a large portion of Africa is pointed out as the abode of races who do not improve, we ask, why should they? When have they been subjected to the operation of causes similar to those which have led Europeans in their progressive career? And if we look a

VOL. XII.-NO. I.

F

little farther, we shall see that the physical geography of Africa has opposed difficulties to the advance of civilization which we do not yet know how to overcome. In like manner immense tracts of country on the borders of the Amazon cannot, from considerations of physical geography, become the home of a numerous and cultivated population, until gigantic means can be employed to cut away its rampant vegetation, and drain its enormous swamps. In dealing with Africa, the difficulties are physical and moral, and the beneficent influence of the European mind upon the African mind can only be exerted successfully by a combination of powerful countries like England, America, and France, to compel the cessation of the slave trade, and establish honest, commercial settlements at the most convenient points.

Professor Ansted has an interesting chapter on the efforts of human agency in modifying the earth's surface, and there is every reason to believe that, within a few generations, the conditions of prodigious tracts of country will be greatly improved. India is undergoing an enormous change, through the restoration and extension of works of irrigation, and the impulse given to cultivation by the augmentation of means of transport. The slave states of America are passing from barbarism to civilization, and in a generation or two, millions of educated men will replace millions brought up in a condition little above that of domestic animals, swamps will be drained, waste land reclaimed, barren land cultivated, and thus many thousands of square miles will experience a considerable modification of climate as well as of aspect. When sandy wastes are sufficiently near centres of civilization to be worth the cost of modifying, we find them gradually converted into pasture and forest. First, certain plants are grown which give stability to the shifting mass, and other plants succeed them, and, in time, trees with their power of attracting moisture and protecting the soil from evaporation, rear their heads. Even in certain extensive deserts, it is believed that water for their fertilization might be obtained by artesian wells, and the constant demands of commerce for new markets and new routes of transit, tend to bring into importance tracts of country that have for ages been stationary, because the world's industry and invention had left them alone.

Apparently trifling circumstances may lead to considerable changes, as when the accidental introduction of a new plant or a new insect interferes with pre-existing arrangements and modifies the vegetation of a country or a district, thereby leading to changes in its supply of moisture, amount of evaporation, etc., etc.

It is, however, when civilization is most active, that man's

power over the earth becomes most apparent, and enters into rivalry with natural forces in producing modification. For immense periods it is probable that, on the whole, the amount of natural force at work to effect alterations of the earth's surface has been tolerably uniform in amount; but we who live in regions lying a little way out of the existing lines of maximum disturbance from action of fire, ice, or water, are apt to underrate the work that is going on from day to day. Wonderful is the amount of that work when fairly surveyed, and the time may arrive when fresh changes in the direction of disturbing forces may occur, and our own quiet regions may again be torn by earthquakes, fire-deluged by the volcano, or modified by glacial ice.

RESULTS OF METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS MADE AT THE
KEW OBSERVATORY.

*To obtain the Barometric pressure at the sea-level these numbers must be increased by 037 inch.

HOURLY MOVEMENT OF THE WIND (IN MILES), AS RECORDED BY ROBINSON'S ANEMOMETER.-APRIL, 1867.

Hourly

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Means.

4 10 18

8

16

10

4 13 22 30 11 15
4 13 24 25 11 14
3 16 25 24 11 15
4 14 27 24 8 15
5 17 24 25 10 10
5 16 32 25

3 14 19 26 12 13 10 6 12 11 1 14 16 24 10 12 11.

6 12

1

8

3 12 21 28 14 14

14

5 8

7 10 9 17

3

16 9 21 28

9 33

4 17 30 28 11

7

5 15 21 29 16 11 18

7 12 14 13
6 9 16 21 13 21 13 22 31 11 29
13 13 14 15 13 16 14 22 27 16 29
14 18 16 18 15 17 17 19 28 17 33
14 19 13 24 15 17 13 24 31 20 32 9 18 38 24 10
16 18 12 21 17 18 18 27 26 22 31 10 21 36 25 14
16 15 15 21 16 18 22 31 26 23 24 10 20 32 25 17 11
17 10 14 24 18 12 24 34 25 24 26 9 18 30 26 18 12
15 14 12 26 19 14 24 33 25 20 22 13 15 25 27 17 11
12 16 7 21 19 12 16 27 26 26 23 16 15 30 24 14 4
10 15 10 15 19 14 19 32 24 27
10 13 10 14 17 13 24 33 25 28
13 16 9 11 12 10 22 30 19 30
9 13 14 10 21 31 17 27
8 13
12 17 12 13 14 9 22 33 18 23
11 11 12 14 11 8 16 29 17 23

9 14 15 27 29 15
5 11 15 29 18 14
1 10 19 29 12 15
4 11 20 26 10 15
1 10 23 30 10 14
5 11 20 29 10. 12

321723

15

7 27 19 29 13 23 23 13 10 20 16
6 26 21 20 8 24 22 13 10 18 15
6 21 20 20 9 19 20 10 14 14
5 20 17 17 10 14 20 14 15 12

18 24 16 10 12 16 12 15 10
5 18 29 13 10' 8 12 11 15
9 18 30 12 10 13 7 13 14
3 12 20 25 14 10 11
8 10 12

6 10 17.5

9 15 19.0 6 18 18.4

5 16 188

5 18 18'8

3. 14 18.3 3 14 16.9

5 11 15.8

8 7 10 15.0

6 11

7

6 15 21 30 18 14 21

6 12 11 7

9756

225 307 287 401 291 299 375 575 600 126 525 192 406 705 547 299 180 169 439 502 578 300 344 427 232 288 271 189 139 247 149