DOVE ON THE PRESSURE OF THE ATMOSPHERE. 477 
But even if we no longer adhere to Saussure’s partial view, 
—if we acknowledge that a science so nobly begun by him has 
not since remained stationary,—if we consider the currents of 
air as the true levers in general of meteorological phenomena 
(caused, it is true, by the vast ascending current in the regions 
of calms producing the trade-winds), meteorological theories 
may still bear the stamp of that locality, of which they have to 
free themselves in order to attain their real importance; for 
they all are written under the influence of the sea-climate. The 
admission of America into the circle of observations has cer- 
tainly contributed essentially to correct the defective European 
ideas respecting the distribution of temperature, but even in 
America the true continental relations do not occur. Only now 
is meteorology penetrating into the true continental climate. 
For its finding a place there we are indebted to Count Can- 
crin, who has connected the most distant provinces of the 
Russian empire by a net-work of observations with those sta- 
tions where formerly observations were made with Manheim in- 
struments. The careful reduction of these observations, and 
their quick publication by M. Kupffer, renders the results ob- 
tained common property, and admits of our starting questions 
which previously it was not possible to think could ever be 
answered. 
The antithesis of continental and sea-climate is generally ap- 
plied only in reference to relations of temperature, and is therefore 
most distinctly indicated in the distribution of vegetable forms 
as its most direct expression. It also explains how the drops 
on the surface of the water, cooled by the immediate contact 
with the air, sink to make room for those more warm from the 
deep; the alleviation of the winter’s cold from the vicinity of 
the sea just as simply as the lowering of the summer tempera- 
ture from the heat rendered latent by evaporation. But it is evi- 
dent that the vapour formed, will not only at its origin influence 
the phzenomena of temperature, but, as an elastic fluid taking a 
share in the general pressure of the atmosphere, must also be 
of importance with reference to the barometrical relations. 
We are accustomed to look upon the barometrical changes as 
an expression more or less direct of the thermometrical. This 
view is founded upon the experience that in the so-called irre- 
gular changes a diminution of the atmospheric pressure is ge- 
nerally accompanied by an elevation of temperature; and, on 
