e of quantity on the eastern sides, several thousand feet, as it
is for a like cause depressed on the southern side of the Himmalayas. On
the eastern slopes and tops of the Andes, as we have seen, and owing to
their elevation, falls the moisture which, according to the working of the
machinery, and the law of curvature, should bless the coast line of Peru
and northern Chili, the eastern Pacific, northern Mexico, California,
Utah, and New Mexico; and, while the Andes stand, the curse of comparative
aridity must rest upon them all.

Southern Chili, and western Patagonia are supplied by the N. E. trades,
which originate in the West Indies, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean
Sea, and the Pacific, off Central America, in the neighborhood of the Bay
of Panama. But there, again, the same effect of elevation is seen. The
mountain slopes of southern Chili and Patagonia are abundantly supplied,
and their mountain ranges are drenched with rain, while eastern Patagonia
and southern Buenos Ayres, under their lee, are comparatively dry. So the
S. E. trades, which originate off the western coast of South America,
curve in upon, and aided by the oceanic currents, supply, abundantly, the
N. W. coast of this continent, north of California; and there, too, the
coast, and its elevated ranges, receive, as we have seen, a very large
proportionate supply of their moisture. Substantially, the same state of
things, as far as circumstances permit, is reproduced upon Malaysia,
Hindoostan, etc., and the interposition of arid New Holland upon the
evaporating trade-surface may be distinctly traced upon south-western
Asia. Deserts abound there; the Caspian Sea receives the drainage of a
very large surface, without an outlet; their southern line of
extra-tropical rains is carried up very far in summer, and their dry
season is intensely hot. (See an article in the American Journal of
Science, for July, 1846, by Azariah Smith.)

Another fact in this connection is worthy of a moment's consideration. The
magnetic equator, as sought by the dipping needle, is not coincident with
the geographical one. Humboldt found it, on the Andes, at 7 deg. 1' south, and
it has been found still lower in the Atlantic. Over Africa it rises above
the geographical equator, and descends again on the Indian Ocean. About
midway the Pacific, it becomes coincident with the equator of the earth
again. (See diagram, on page 83.) Perhaps it is not known, with certainty,
why this i