of the aqueous vapour on the air masses moving from regions of low to those of high velocity, the circulation tends largely to be a vertical one, so that this locality is on the whole preserved in comparative tranquillity. It may happen, however, that owing to changes in the distribution of aqueous vapour, or other causes, this natural stability of the atmosphere may be disturbed over certain regions of the earth's surface. The circumstances will then favour a direct or more or less vertical return of the energy of the air masses in the neighbourhood of these regions. This return will then take the form of violent storms of wind, usually of a cyclonic nature, and affording direct evidence of the tendency of the air masses to pursue vortical paths in their movement towards lower levels. Under normal conditions, however, the operation of the atmospheric machine is smooth and continuous. The earth's axial energy, under the sun's incepting influence, steadily flows at all parts of the earth's surface through the aqueous vapour into the atmospheric masses, and the latter, rising from the terrestrial surface, with a motion somewhat like that of a column of smoke, spread out and speed towards regions of lower velocity, and travelling by devious and lengthened paths towards the surface, steadily return the abstracted energy in its original form. Every operation is exactly balanced; energy expenditure and energy return are complementary; the terrestrial atmospheric machine as a whole works without jar or discontinuity, and the earth's motion of rotation is maintained with absolute uniformity. Like every other energy machine, the atmospheric machine has clearly-defined energy limits. The total quantity of energy in operation is strictly limited by the mass of the acting materials. It is well, also, to note the purely mechanical nature of the machine. Every operation is in reality the operation of mechanical energy, and involves the movement of matter in some way or other relative to the earth's surface and under the incepting action of the earth's gravitation (§§ 16, 20). The moving gaseous masses have as real an existence as masses of lead or other solid material, and require as real an expenditure of energy to move them relative to the terrestrial surface (§ 18). This aspect of the planetary machine will be more fully treated later.