174 Analysis of Scientific Books and Memoirs. 



see how little even the most elementary branches of meteorology are ex- 

 tended, and how few conclusions can satisfactorily be drawn upon the 

 simple element of temperature. We would, however, hope that more is to 

 be obtained in this department than M. Schouw has had access to, and 

 that some physical geographer of more southerai latitudes may use the 

 same zeal in eliciting facts in the natural history of the Alps and Pyrenees, 

 which our author has exercised in his almost unexplored and vast penin- 

 sula of Scandinavia. Without reporting the individual results on which 

 M. Schouw builds his conclusions, we shall quote a few of the more es- 

 tablished conclusions themselves. 



The western division of Scandinavia is estimated to have a temperature 

 in the same latitude, higher than the eastern by about a degree^Centigrade 

 (l.°8 Fahr.) at Stockholm and Christiania, but in some places rising to 

 two and a half degrees. The difference of summer and winter tempera- 

 ture, which increases from south to north (and rises even to 30° Cent.) is 

 much greater on the eastern side of the peninsula. These facts are easily 

 explicable from the steady and milder temperature which the ocean wash- 

 ing the western shore maintains, and the exposure of the Gulf of Both- 

 nia to the chilling blasts of the Siberian winter- 8°.l Cent. = 14°.6 Fahr. 

 may be taken as the range of mean annual temperature between the north 

 and south portions of Scandinavia. The general results in the vicinity of 

 the Alps will be pretty well anticipated. Our author gives an interesting 

 series, showing how the difference of summer and winter temperatures de- 

 creases as we ascend higher in altitude ; thus giving the heights in French 

 feet, and the differences in Centigrade degrees. 



Vienna, 480 feet, 22°.04. Munich, 1629 feet 19°.38. 

 Tegernsee, 2263 — 17.28. Peissenberg, 3088 — Iff .11. 

 Gothard, 6440 — 14 .70. Bernard, 7668 — 13 .20. 



The range of mean temperature in latitude in the Alps is 6° Cent. =10°.8 

 Fahr, ; but the mean temperature of the highest summits being computed 

 at — 14°.9 Cent. = 5°.2 Fahr. the whole range in altitude extends to 29°.6 

 Cent, which in Scandinavia (where the summits are much lower, their 

 mean temperature being as high as — 9°.96 Cent.) rises only to 17°.0 Cent: 

 We must now give briefly M. Schouw's results on the quantity of rain 

 falling among groups of mountains. To show the gradual increase of rain 

 from the plains to the Alps we extract the following mean results ; — 



Lombardo- Venetian Plains near the Apennines, (8 places,) 



Central plain of Lombardy, (7 places,) 



At the bases of the Alps, and in the lower vallies, (20 places,) 



/ To the E. of the Lago di Guarda, . - - 



(To the W. 



Similar results are obtained in other approaches to the Alps : — 



Mean fall of rain from lat. 43^^ to 44°, viz. at Toulon, Mar- 

 seilles, Aix, Montpellier, Aries, Nismes, Cavaillon, and 

 Avignon, - - - - 21 2.4 



