476 2?istanccs of the Effects 



of the sharpness and severity which distinguish the climate 

 of these regions from that of the other countries of Europe. 

 It is well known that this same latitude presents in Germany 

 and England very different and much milder conditions of 

 climate. To the effects resulting from this latitude must 

 be added two other causes, which have no existence elsewhere 

 on the continent of Europe, the total want of mountains and 

 the great masses of forest." He goes on to say that the 

 great Sarmatian plain, extending from the Baltic to the Car- 

 pathian Mountains, is exposed to the cold north and north- 

 east winds; the former blowing from regions covered with 

 snow and eternal ice, and the latter passing from the deserts 

 of Russia and Tartary, traversing swamps and forests, 

 and consequently dry and cold to a degree greater than the 

 north wind elsewhere. The northern slope of the Carpa- 

 thians, therefore, feels the full effect of this ; whilst on their 

 southern side are grown the grape of Hungary, and the fruits 

 of southern countries.* The Himalaya Mountains present 

 the same phenomenon on a still greater scale ; as, also, the 

 Andes, and the Ghauts of India, as far as affects moisture. 



" The great masses of wood, which often cover a vast ex- 

 tent of country, contribute no less to the severity of the cli- 

 mate ; nevertheless, for several ages this severity has sensibly 

 diminished. The rapid increase of the population has caused 

 a part of the forest to be felled, has softened the temperature, 

 and produces in the Slavonic countries, comprising therein 

 central Russia {la JRussie Moyenne)> the same changes which 

 are remarked in modern Germany (Allemagne), comparing it 

 with ancient Germany (Germanie)" 



The mean temperature of Lithuania may be fixed at 5° 4' 

 of Reaumur (44° of Fahr.) ; it lies, therefore, between that of 

 Poland, which is 6° R. (46° F.), and that of Russia in Europe, 

 which is 4° 8' R. (43° F.), as has been carefully noted during 

 the last eighty years. Although we have no observations on 

 the forest itself, we shall not much differ from the exact truth 

 in placing its mean temperature at 5° (43° R. 44° F.). 



" The environs of Bialowicza have the following relations 

 with the north of Germany. Its spring commences late and 

 lasts not long ; its summer is seldom fine, often cloudy, some- 

 times stormy, now cold, then insupportably hot ; the autumn 

 makes up in part for the summer, as it is serene, dry, and hot 



* This remark reminds me of what is stated in Malte-Brun, tome iii. 

 p. 625., who quotes Conrad, Diss, de Effect Frig. t Dantzic, 1670, and 

 Erndtel, that the east wind is colder than the north, since it comes from 

 the Ural Mountains ; but he attributes the cold of Poland partly to that 

 from the Carpathians, a contrary position to that of the text. Rzaczinsky 

 says, in 1654 a sudden frost destroyed the corn at Cracow on the day of 

 Pentecost. 



