528 'Extracts from the Georgical Letters ^ l^c, Dec, 



The roof of Westminster-hall, coeval with the walls, is now 

 fresh as from the hands of the carpenter. 



The vegetation of a country depends on tlie latitude, the eleva- 

 tion or depression, the cloudiness or sunshine, the breeziness or 

 stairnation of air. The top of Penmunmaur is colder than John- 

 a-Grott's House. The mathematicians sent by the late kings 

 of France and Spain, to measure a degree of latitude under the 

 equator, experienced more cold than those sent on the same er- 

 rand to Lapland. They took their station 20CO toises (almost 

 24 miles) abov« the level of t!ie PiKific. At Lima, in the 13th 

 degree of south latitude, there is neither cloud, rain nor thun- 

 der. A garua or thick mist prevails for some weeks before and 

 after the winter solstice. Yet lucern grows in abundance. At 

 Tumbez, nearer the line, not a speck is ever seen in the hea- 

 vens. 



The western Cordillera of the Andes gives all climates. 

 At bottom grow cochineal, and the huftest plants; higher grow 

 the tropical ; higher are wine and oil ; over these are the re- 

 ^io.is of corn, of grass, of v/ild g.^ats and sempiternal snow. 



The thermometry of the whole terraqueous is variable. Ar- 

 mies of old marched over the Tiber on ice. The Norwegians 

 for ages had a settlement on Greenland. For ages they have 

 been cut off from it by an increasing icy continent. 



When Anson sailed round the world, he found the weather 

 colder in the southern, thanin the same latitudes in thenorthern 

 liemisphere. A Dutchman about that time sailed under the north- 

 pole star, in fine weather. The sun being annually above sevendays 

 longer to the north than to the south of the line, seemed to warrant 

 the greater warmth, a permanent pli3c:nomenon. It is otherwise. 

 Falkland's isle is now warmer than Newfoundland, and the 

 north pole inaccessible for storm and excreme cold. 



Oats will grow farther north, or, which is the same, on more 

 elevated grounds than wheat or two-rowed barley. Thebest oats 

 I have seen grew in latitude 55 and 46 minutes, 10 or I2 miles 

 inland, and about 700 yards above high water. 



Li the lower pait of Virginia wheat is shrivelled like small 

 pepper-corns. In more southern latitudes, equally low, on the 

 eastern continent it is plump and good. A clearer ether gives 

 an intenser sun. At Halifax in latitude 44. 45. near 100 yards 

 above high water, my Fahrenheit, when hung in the shade 12. 

 feet from the ground, from lOth to 2 2d August, 1763, both 

 days inclufive, ranged from 8 1 to 884. Yet 27th December, 

 J 762, evening frost, calm, clear stars, the thermometer at that 

 place sunk to 5 below o. 



Preternatural causss ?iF-^cting fcrtilitj arc earthquakes, erup-. 



tions 



