nd therefore the
remarkable character of the work) attributes great influence to
earthquakes and volcanic action. Probably he is correct in this. The
present active volcanic action of the western hemisphere is nearly all
within the trade-wind region, from Mexico to Peru inclusive. The West
India islands are of volcanic origin, and the influence of volcanic action
is not confined to a concussion of the earth, or the eruption of mud and
lava. Its connection with magnetic action, and disturbance, is
unquestionable. But whether they operate to increase or diminish the
trades, and the extent to which they induce violent electric action and
storms within and without the tropics, is a question which further
observation must determine. The ripples of the ocean, compared by
Lieutenant Banvard to that of a "boiling cauldron, or such as is formed by
water being forced from under the gate of a mill-pond," are met with in
the vicinity of volcanic islands, where hurricanes and water-spouts
originate, and have been observed to precede storms, and be connected with
a falling barometer. But whether they are volcanic or magneto-electric,
it is difficult to determine. Dr. Webster remarks, as the result of
observation, during the 17th century, that earthquakes had a N. W. and S.
E. progression in the United States, and especially in New England. In a
recent article, Professor Dana has examined, with great ability, the
general and remarkable trending of coast lines, groups of islands, and
ranges of mountains, from N. E. to S. W. and from N. W. to S. E. (American
Journal of Science, May, 1847.)

The line of magnetic intensity, which connects our magnetic pole with its
opposite, is now upon this continent nearly a N. W. and S. E. line, and
the pole is fast traveling to the west. It may, and probably will yet, be
established, that there is an intimate connection between the cause of
volcanic action within the earth, to which the upheaval of the N. W. and
S. E., and N. E. and S. W. ranges were due, and of magnetic action
without, and between both, and the cause of _the S. E. extension_ of our
summer storms and belts of showers and barometric _waves_, and the
_peculiar N. W. wind_. Our limits do not permit us to pursue the subject.

Much influence upon the weather has been attributed to the spots upon the
sun. These spots are supposed to be breaks or openings in the luminous
atmosphere or photosphere of the sun, through which its dark nucleus bo