240 THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA. 



the sun's rays directly upon the land. The land receives heat 

 from them, but, instead of having the capacity of water for retain- 

 ing it, it imparts it straightway to the air ; and thus the proper cli- 

 mate, because it is the climate which the Creator has, for his own 

 wise purposes, allotted to this portion of the earth, is maintained 

 until the marine caldron of Cape St. Roque is again heated and 

 brought into the state for supplying the means of maintaining the 

 needful temperature in Europe during the absence of the sun in 

 the other hemisphere. 



516. In like manner, the Gulf of Guinea forms a caldron and a 

 furnace, and spreads out over the South Atlantic an air-chamber 

 for heating up in winter and keeping warm the extra-tropical re- 

 gions of South America. Every traveler has remarked upon the 

 mild climate of Patagonia and the Falkland Islands, 



" Temperature in high southern latitudes," says a very close 

 observer, who is co-operating with me in collecting materials, 

 " differs greatly from the temperature in northern. In southern 

 latitudes there seem to be no extremes of heat and cold, as at the 

 north. Newport, R. I., for instance, latitude 41° north, longitude 

 71° west, and Rio Negro, latitude 41° south, and longitude 63° 

 west, as a comparison : in the former, cattle have to be stabled 

 and fed during the winter, not being able to get a living in the 

 fields on account of snow and ice. In the latter, the cattle feed 

 in the fields all winter, there being plenty of vegetation and no 

 use of hay. On the Falkland Islands (latitude 51-2° south), thou- 

 sands of bullocks, sheep, and horses are running wild over the 

 country, gathering a living all through the winter," 



517. The water in the equatorial caldron of Guinea can not 

 escape north — the shore-line will not permit it. It must, there- 

 fore, overflow to the south, as that of St. Roque does to the north, 

 carrying to Patagonia and the Falkland Islands, beyond 50° south, 

 the winter climate of Charleston, South Carolina, on our side of 

 the North Atlantic, or of the " Emerald Island" on the other. 



All geographers have noticed, and philosophers have frequently 

 remarked upon the conformity, as to the shore-line profile, of equa- 

 torial America and equatorial Africa. 



518. It is true, we can not now tell the reason, though explana- 

 tions founded upon mere conjecture have been offered, why there 

 should be this sort of jutting in and jutting out of the shore-fine, as 



