article of which the wind is
composed, to show whence it came, the problem could not have been more
perfectly solved."

While the captain was speaking, Mr McRitchie came on deck, and
collected in sheets of paper a quantity of the red dust. "It will be
prized by some of my scientific friends at home," he observed; "and even
the unscientific may value a substance which has travelled half round
the globe high up in the atmosphere."

"There is another substance, doctor, which travels farther, and is of
much greater use to man; and yet how little he troubles his head to
consider where it comes from," remarked the captain.

"What do you mean, sir?" asked the doctor, a little puzzled I thought.

"Water," answered Captain Frankland. "Remember those dense fogs, like
wet blankets, which so continually rise in those calm regions to the
south of us; they are caused by vapours rising from the sea, and leaving
its salt behind. This vapour must go somewhere, and it certainly does
not fall in any place near the region where it is drawn up. See the
beautiful provision of Nature to supply with fertilising moisture the
many districts of the earth! This damp vapour, of which we shall
by-and-by have a specimen, rises into the upper regions of the air, and
is there wafted steadily on till it reaches the northern portion of the
globe. It is raised by the powerful rays of the sun during the southern
summer, and with it a considerable amount of heat is carried off which
remains latent. When it reaches the far colder atmosphere of the north,
it is formed into clouds, and condensed, and then precipitated in rain.
In the southern hemisphere there is, as you know, a larger proportion of
sea than in that of the north; and thus it serves as a reservoir to
supply those spots which would otherwise be arid deserts, with an
abundant supply of the chief necessary of life. The whole of nature is
full of similar beautiful arrangements for making the globe a convenient
habitation for man, clearly to be perceived if men would but open their
eyes to behold them."

CHAPTER THREE.

THE WONDERS OF THE OCEAN.

We were about a day's sail or so from the Cape de Verd Islands, when one
day, as I was looking out, I saw on the starboard-bow what I was certain
was a shoal of great extent covered with sea-weed. "Land on the
starboard-bow!" I sung out, thinking there could be no mistake about
the matter. I heard a loud laugh at my shoulder. Old Ben