Thea. | .THE HIMALAYAN MOUNTAINS. 113 
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we found them on the western side of the ridge, or that they are covered by a soil like 
that in which the Camellia flourishes.” (Adel, p- 224.) This is most likely to be the 
case, as Sir G. Staunton states, that a chain of granite mountains begins at Hang- 
choo-foo, with a direction to the southward, and that vast tracts of hilly land are planted 
with tea in the province of Fokien. Mr. Reeves, from the views he has of Soo-Ei-Shan, 
where the best black teas are grown, suspects that the hills are schistose. 
With regard to the climate of this tract of country, or that best suited to the 
cultivation of the tea-plants, we are without precise information, as no one competent 
to make observations has resided throughout the year in the principal tea districts; but 
the approximative results we are able to obtain will perhaps be sufficient for practical 
purposes, particularly if connected with a view of the vegetation. In the first place, if 
we look at the tables which have been calculated, and those of Mr. Harvey are the 
latest, we shall find the probable mean temperatures of Canton, of the parallels of 
latitude of 29° and of 31°, as well as of Pekin, to be 74.73° ; 72.62°; 69.86°; and 
62.43° respectively. But it is desirable to have these theoretical results confirmed by 
practical observations, especially as temperature is not invariably found to go along 
with latitude, particularly with regard to the eastern and western sides of continents. 
This the illustrious Humboldt has long ago shewn in his paper on Isothermal lines: where 
he has remarked that ‘‘ the whole of Europe, compared with the eastern and western 
parts of America and Asia, has an insular climate, and upon the same isothermal line, 
the summer becomes warmer, and the winters colder, in proportion as we advance from 
the meridian of Mont Blanc towards the east or the west ; the western parts of ail 
continents are not only warmer at equal latitudes than the eastern, but even in the 
zones of equal annual temperature, the winters are more rigorous, and the summers 
hotter on the eastern, than upon the western coasts of the two continents. The 
northern part of China, like the Atlantic region of the United States, exhibits excessive 
climates (as Buffon indicated) and seasons strongly contrasted, while the coasts of New 
California and the embouchure of the Columbia, have winters and summers almost 
equally temperate. Thus we find at New York, the summer of Rome and the winter 
of Copenhagen ; at Quebec, the summer of Paris and the winter of Petersburgh. In 
China, at Pekin, for example, where the mean temperature of the year is that of the 
coasts of Brittany, the scorching heats of summer are greater than at Cairo, and the 
winters as rigorous as at Upsal.” These results have been deduced by their illustrious 
author from the observations of Amyot, which were carried on for a period of six years : 
by these it appears, that Pekin, in-N. lat. 39° 54’ and E. long. 116° 27’, and at the level 
of the ocean, has an annual mean temperature of 54° 9, that of the warmest month 
being 84° 38’, and of the coldest 24° 62’; while the mean temperature of the three 
winter months is 26° 42’. The severity of the cold may be judged of by this, and by 
the thermometer sometimes falling, it is said, as low as 63° below zero, as well as by 
the great thickness of the ice with which the rivers are frozen over. The summer 
is as warm as that at Naples, with a mean temperature of 82° 58, and the greatest 
Q heat 
