§ 729. THE CLIMATES OF THE SEA. 39 



whicb raised this immense area to tlie temperature of 80° ancl up- 

 ward, is not to be found in early spring on this side of the paral- 

 lel of 8° north. The isotherm of 80° in March, after quitting the 

 Caribbean Sea, runs parallel with the South American coast to- 

 ward Cape St. Eoque, keeping some 8 or 10 degrees from it. 

 Therefore the heat dispensed over Europe from this caldron falls 

 off in March. But at this season the snn comes forth with fresh 

 supplies; he then crosses the line and passes over into the north- 

 ern hemisphere ; observations show that the process of heating 

 the water in this great caldron for the next winter is now about 

 to commence. In the mean time, so benign is the system of cos- 

 mical arrangements, another process of raising the temperature of 

 Europe commences. The land is more readily impressed than 

 the sea by the heat of the solar rays ; at this season, then, the 

 summer climate due these transatlantic latitudes is modified by 

 the action of the sun's rays directly upon the land. The land re- 

 ceives heat from them, but, instead of having the capacity of wa- 

 ter for retaining it, it imparts it straightway to the air ; and thus 

 the proper climate, 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. Eoque and the 

 tropics is again heated and brought into the state for supplying 

 the means of maintaining the needful temperature in Europe dur- 

 ing the absence of the sun in the other hemisphere. Thus the 

 equable climates of Western Europe are accounted for. 



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

 ThG Gulf of Guinea fumacc, and spreads out over the South Atlantic an 



and the climate of . ^ _ ^ . . . , . . 



Patagonia. air-chambcr lor heatmg up m wmter and assistiiig 



to keep warm the extra-tropical regions 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, Rhode Island, 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 



