New geographies . We know that air is all aboutus, becatise we can feel it striking againstour faces and hands whenever the windblows; and when it blows very hard, theair may move with force enough to over-turn trees and even houses. The air is of the greatest importance toall plants, animals, and people. It is evenmore important than theheat ^he impor-and the soil, about which we tance of airhave already learned. Plants *°^^*®and animals cannot live without it; andwe ourselves cannot live more than afew minutes, if we do not have it tobreathe. Drowning means nothing morethan sinking under the
New geographies . We know that air is all aboutus, becatise we can feel it striking againstour faces and hands whenever the windblows; and when it blows very hard, theair may move with force enough to over-turn trees and even houses. The air is of the greatest importance toall plants, animals, and people. It is evenmore important than theheat ^he impor-and the soil, about which we tance of airhave already learned. Plants *°^^*®and animals cannot live without it; andwe ourselves cannot live more than afew minutes, if we do not have it tobreathe. Drowning means nothing morethan sinking under the water, wherethere is no air to breathe. The air is of great use to us in stillanother way. Without it there couldbe no fire; for wood, coal, and gas can-not burn without air. So without the LAND, WATER, AND AIB 55 air we could have no light from keroseneor gas, no fire for cooking or heating,and no steam for running factories andengines. The movements of the air, which wecall winds, are of great importance, for. Fig. 71. — A sailing vessel driyen -through the water by thewind blowing against the sails. the winds do work of many kinds. ForThe-work of example, they drive sailingthe winds vessels through the water(Fig. 71), and they turn windmills, whichare often used to pump water from also remove smoke, dust, and foulair from crowded cities. Far more important than this is thework the winds do in carrying waterfrom place to place over the earth. Theair takes up water from the ocean in theform of vapor, which we cannot see, andthe winds bear it about, sometimes a fewmiles, sometimes hundreds and eventhousands of miles. The winds carrythe vapor in all directions, and oftenhold it for many days before letting itfall. It requires an enormous amount ofwater to keep the soil damp, the lakesfull, and the rivers flowing; far, farmore is needed than all the wagons,boats, and trains in the whole world could haul. But the winds do that vast workvery easily, and much of the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectgeography, bookyear19
