Heat and moisture are indispensable to the fertillity of the earth--Arrangements exist for their diffusion and distribution, and all the phenomena of the weather result from their operation--Heat furnished or produced mainly by the direct action of the sun's rays--Manner in which it is diffused over the earth--Other causes operate besides the sun's rays--The earth intensely heated in its interior--Heat derived from the great Oceanic currents, and the aerial currents which flow from the tropics to the poles, and from magnetism and electricity--Water distributed by an atmospheric machinery as extensive as the globe--Evidences of this--Its distribution over the continents of North America--Explanation of it--Source from whence our supply of water is derived, and from which our rivers return 1 CHAPTER II. Our rivers return in the form of clouds, and in storms and showers--Definition and character of storms--Differences in the character of the clouds which constitute them--Nomenclature of Howard--Its imperfections--New order of description--Low fog--High fog--Storm fog--Storm scud--N. W. scud--Cumulus-- Stratus--Cirrus--Compounds of the two latter--recapitulation in tabular form 24 CHAPTER III. Our rivers do not return from the North Atlantic--All storms and showers move from the westward to the eastward--Seeming clouds seen moving from the eastward to the westward are scud--They are incidents of the storm, and not a necessary part of it--The storm clouds are above them, moving to the eastward--Occasions when this may be seen--Admitted facts prove it--Investigations prove it--May be known from analogy--From the fact that there is an aerial current pursuing the same course in which the storms originate--Character of this current--Its influence upon our country--Importance of a knowledge of its origin, cause, and the reciprocal action between it and the earth--To this end necessary to go down "to the chambers of the South" 43 CHAPTER IV. The trade wind region--Its extent and arrangements--Its belt of daily rains and movable character--The trade winds--The extra tropical belt of rains--Connection between them and their annual movements--The counter-trades--Their origin and situation--One of them constitutes our aerial current--It originates in the South Atlantic as a surface-trade--Anomalies of the trade wind region--Dry seasons--Humboldt's description of them--Exist where the surface trades are situated--The rainless countries-- Concentrated counter-trade--Monsoons--Received theory in relation to them a fallacy--Cause of the great central phenomena-- Calorific theory a fallacy--Land not hotter under the belt of rains, nor sea materially so--Theory should be abandoned 52 CHAPTER V.