to continue
practically as they are. It may not be plain to you why the trade
winds do not blow towards the equator due south and north, since the
equator has much the same effect on air that a stove has in the centre
of a room, causing an ascending current towards the ceiling, which
moves off in straight lines in all directions on reaching it, its place
being taken by cold currents moving in opposite directions along the
floor. Picture to yourselves the ascending currents at the equator
moving off to the poles from which they came. As they move north they
are continually coming to parts of the globe having smaller circles of
latitude than those they have left, and therefore not moved forward as
rapidly by the earth's daily rotation as the latitudes nearer the
equator. The winds consequently run ahead of the surface, and so move
east of north--the earth turning towards the east--while the heavier
colder surface currents, rushing towards the equator to take the place
of the ascending column, coming from regions where the surface whirls
comparatively slowly to those where it is rotating faster, are
continually left behind, and so move southwest; while south of the
equator a corresponding motion results. Though this is not the most
exact explanation, it may serve to make the action clear. I will add,
that if any one prefers a colder or a warmer climate than that of the
place in which he lives, he need only go north or south for an hour;
or, if he prefers his own latitude, he can rise a few thousand feet in
the air, or descend to one of the worked-out coal-mines which are now
used as sanitariums, and secure his object by a slight change of
altitude. Let us speed the departure of racking changes and extremes
of climate, and prepare to welcome what we believe prevails in
paradise--namely, everlasting spring."

Appended to the address was the report of the Government Examining
Committee, which ran: "We have critically examined the Terrestrial
Axis Straightening Company's figures and calculations, also its
statements involving natural philosophy, physics, and astronomy, all of
which we find correct, and hereby approve.

[Signed] "For the Committee:

"HENRY CHELMSFORD CORTLANDT,

"Chairman."

The Board of Directors having ratified the acts of its officers, and
passed congratulatory resolutions, the meeting adjourned sine die.

CHAPT