588 



From the concluding chapter we must give one quotation, which well 

 illustrates the prevalence of what has been termed the " law of com- 

 pensation," throughout the habitable globe. After adverting to the 

 distinctive features of North and South Europe, as displayed in the 

 level character of the former contrasted with the mountain chains and 

 intervening valleys of the latter, the author proceeds : — 



" Through this mountainous character, the Italian, the Greek and 

 the Spaniard possess great advantages over the North-European ; for 

 in accordance with the well-known law of the influence of altitude 

 upon climate, they can ascend from their own southern valleys, full 

 of luxuriant vegetation, to the mountain sides clothed by the rye- 

 fields, the meadows, and the hazel bushes of the north, and seek 

 around the alpine summits the hardy little members of the Lapland 

 flora, or at any rate find there, amid the snow and ice which exist 

 around their peaks through winter and summer, a vegetation which 

 will furnish them with an adequate idea of the scanty alms bestowed 

 by the earth in arctic regions. 



" But the untravelled northern must be satisfied with hearing of the 

 evergreen woods, the olive groves, the orange gardens, and the like, 

 which flourish in the clear air, and bear unscathed the comparatively 

 mild temperature of winters of the South. Yet a contemplation of the 

 conditions of Northern Europe reveals, that though less richly en- 

 dowed, it is not less cared for than the South, and a multitude of 

 influences are found at work, modifying the law of diminution of tem- 

 perature with increasing latitude, and producing a variety in the phe- 

 nomena more than compensating for the deficiency in those features 

 which have given a romantic celebrity to the lands of the ancient civi- 

 lization of Europe. 



" The greater difference of the seasons, and the comparatively high 

 summer temperature of the North, exercise a very advantageous influ- 

 ence on the vegetation there ; for although the cold of winter arrests 

 the activity of vegetable life, it does not destroy it, and the high sum- 

 mer heat, in the season of the growth generally, and in the time of 

 ripening of fruits and seeds in particular, is exceedingly favourable. 

 If the seasons were equable, the North would have an eternal spring, 

 snow and ice would never be seen, for instance in England ; but nei- 

 ther would corn ripen ; probably even there would be no woods, ex- 

 cept perhaps in the south-west corner ; for at Quito, in the table-land 

 of Peru, where the seasons are very ecjuable, the culture of wheat 

 ceases at the mean temperature of Milan, and the woods disappear at 

 the mean of Penzance, lower than that of London. This favouring 



