270 RELATIONS OF AIR AND WATER TO TEMPERATURE AND LIFE. 



of France, Great Britam, and Scandiuavia, and temper the cliuiate of 

 these northern regions to such a degree that Stockholm and St. Peters- 

 burg have become great cities, while in a lower latitude in Labrador, 

 on the other side of the Atlantic, "The country is so rocky and rough 

 and the temperature so intensely cold in the winter (lower than the 

 inhabited parts of Greenland) that Labrador would be worthless and 

 uninhabitable except for the seals and hsh." These currents are 

 deflected by the coasts of France and Spain toward the west and are 

 drifted in different directions by the wind, watering the eastern coasts 

 of Spain and Portugal, but having ])recipitated their moisture they 

 leave the high lands of Spain dry, cold m winter and hot in summer. 



In the Mediterranean the evaporation is much greater than in the 

 Atlantic Ocean ; its water is therefore salt and heavier. To supply this 

 loss by evaporation water flows from the Atlantic into the Mediterra- 

 nean from west to east as a surface current. The i)rojection of Italy 

 and Greece into the sea deflect these currents along each coast of 

 both countries. 



The general course of the winds of southern Europe is interrupted by 

 the Alps and Apennines in Italy, and by the high mountains in Greece. 

 Land and sea breezes water these countries in August and September, 

 while the winter snow on the Alps fills the Italian streams in summer 

 and irrigates the land through numerous canals. 



A plain, beginning in Holland and Belgium, runs through Germany, 

 gradually growing broader, into Eussia, where it is known as the 

 Black zone; thence northeastward through a large part of Siberia. It 

 is low in the west, gradually rising toward the east, though in Siberia 

 its northern margin dips gently beneath the Arctic Ocean. The west- 

 ern part of this plain is watered by the winds from the Atlantic and 

 from the Is^orth and Baltic seas and the Gulf of Finland. The eastern 

 part in Siberia is watered by the winds from the Arctic (-)cean. These 

 plains are the granary of Europe and Siberia, although a small part, 

 comparatively, of the Siberian plain is good for corn. 



ASIA. 



The regularity in the motion of the currents of air and water pre- 

 vailing in the Western Hemisphere and the Atlantic Ocean is apparently 

 lacking in Asia and the Indian Ocean. The mountams of America run 

 northward and southward, and have little, if any, eflect in originating 

 currents of air, and none at all on the ocean currents. In Asia the 

 largest and highest mass of mountains in the world runs east and west, 

 and from their foothills the great plains of India and China extend to 

 the Indian Ocean and the China Sea, bringing a polar climate into close 

 contact with the torrid zone. 



Cold winter winds blow from the Himalayas and the high" plateaus 

 of central Asia southwestward into Indian Ocean and China Sea and 

 drift the waters with them. When the sun turns toward the north in 



